After revealing the worst kept secret in the City, namely the appointment of James Staley as CEO, Barclays reports third quarter figures on Thursday.
With his investment background, the trading update provides an early chance for management to clarify where its priorities lie.
“We had warned to Barclays on the basis that it was de-emphasising the relatively low return investment banking business within the mix and we would see a material reversal of this strategy as a negative to the investment case. However, if it is simply a case of ensuring that a smaller investment banking business generates the best possible return on equity, then we would view this as a positive,” said Shore Capital.
Hargreaves Lansdown’s Keith Bowman thinks additional costs relating to the shrinking of its non-core businesses could be outlined, while there is, as ever, the prospect of more provisions to deal with the fall-out from past behavioural lapses.
“Operating expenses, excluding restructuring costs, could again fall, with strength in financial cushions or ratios further underlined,” Bowman noted.
BT and Royal Dutch Shell will be competing with Barclays for top billing, which may well see the update from medical devices firm get overlooked.
Numis Securities is going for sales growth of 5% on a constant currency basis, with total sales of US$1.14bn, down from US$1.15bn the year before.
“We expect a continued focus on performance within the Emerging markets (c.17% of group sales) given forex head-winds and also from a read across from other industry competitors, e.g. JNJ, which reported some slowing of the medtech sales into the emerging markets and highlighted China and Brazil as particular areas of weakness, although these markets were also impacted by company specific factors,” the broker added.
Significant announcements expected
Final: Matchtech Group (LON:MTEC)
Interim: BT Group (LON:BT.A), COLT Telecom Group SA (LON:COLT),Megafon (LON:MFON), Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (LON:MLC), Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSB)
Trading statement: Aviva (LON:AV.), Barclays (LON:BARC), COLT Telecom Group SA (LON:COLT), Henderson Group (LON:HGG), Kaz Minerals (LON:KAZ), Laird (LON:LRD), National Express Group (LON:NEX), Playtech (LON:PTEC), Smith & Nephew (LON:SN.)
The following widely-held stocks are trading ex-dividend: Barratt Developments, Booker Group, Dechra Pharmaceuticals, Go-Ahead, ITV, Lookers, Moss Bros, Mulberry Group, M&C Saatchi, Unilever