With the European Central Bank upsetting markets last week with its policy meeting, Thursday's gathering of the Bank of England policy makers might have an added piquancy.
The mart money is still on the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) leaving its reference rate unchanged at 0.5%, though it is unlikely to be a unanimous decision.
“More interesting will be the meeting minutes, released at the same time. Here, the MPC will have the chance to fine tune the messages delivered in the Inflation Report (IR) last month,” notes Investec.
“If we do see any hawkish nudges though, we do not expect the newest MPC member, Gertjan Vlieghe, to instigate them. In a newspaper interview last week, he said he felt ‘relaxed about waiting a little longer’ before hiking rates, thus establishing himself at the dovish end of the committee,” the broker added.
On the corporate front, Costa Coffee and Premier Inns owner Whitbread is scheduled to release its first trading update under the leadership of chief executive Alison Brittain.
Premier Inns is expected to have put in a good shift over the summer/autumn period, abetted by the Rugby World Cup.
Costa Coffee has set the bar high in terms of trading performance but consistently manages to meet or beat expectations, though there is a possibility that its European branches might have been affected by the reaction to the terrorist atrocities on the European mainland.
Grocery delivery firm Ocado publishes its fiscal fourth quarter update on Thursday, and Deutsche Bank expects it to report a 15% year-on-year increase in retail sales, in line with the previous quarter.
The broker expects average orders per week to have grown by 17% from a year earlier, though the average order size is seen shrinking by 1%.
“Given recent online sales growth reported by Tesco and Sainsbury's, we expect market growth is closer to 10%. Hence our 15% sales growth forecast for Ocado represents outperformance vs. the market,” Deutsche noted.
“Management is targeting to sign the first Ocado Smart Platform client before year end. With less than one month to go, this looks increasingly challenging. While some investors may be disappointed if a deal is not signed within the targeted time frame, we believe signing the right deal is more important than meeting a self imposed deadline,” it added.
Significant announcements expected
Monday
Interim: Evgen Pharma (LON:EVG), Plastics Capital (LON:PLA), ReNeuron Group (LON:RENE)
Economic: US – Consumer credit.
Tuesday
Final: CareTech Holdings (LON:CTH), Infrastrata (LON:INFA), Victrex, Zytronic (LON:ZYT)
Interim: Daily Internet (LON:DAIP),Hornby (LON:HRN), Polar Capital Technology Trust (LON:PCT)
Economic: US – NFIB small business optimism; UK – BRC like-for-like sales, industrial production, manufacturing output, NIESR GDP; Eurozone – GDP. China – Trade.
Wednesday
Final: Focusrite (LON:TUNE), Redhall Group (LON:RHL)
Interim: Ashtead Group (LON:AHT), Scholium Group (LON:SCHO), Stagecoach Group (LON:SGC)
Trading statement: Carillion (LON:CLLN)
Economic: US – Wholesale inventories; UK – BRC shop price index; China – Consumer prices index.
Thursday
Interim: Darty (LON:DRTY) , Micro Focus International (LON:MCRO), Photo-Me International (LON:PHTM), Sports Direct International (LON:SPD), Versarien (LON:VRS)
Trading statement: Centrica (LON:CNA), Go-Ahead Group (LON:The) (LON:GOG), John Wood Group (LON:WG.), Marshalls (LON:MSLH), Ocado Group (LON:OCDO), PZ Cussons (LON:PZC), Whitbread (LON:WTB)
The following widely-held stocks are trading ex-dividend on Thursday: Next, Associated British Foods
Economic: US – Weekly jobless claims; UK – RICS house price balance, trade, BoE MPC base rate decision
Friday
Interim: ASA Resource Group (LON:ASA) , Gresham House Strategic (LON:GHS), Polar Capital Holdings (LON:POLR)
Trading statement: Bellway (LON:BWY)
Economic: US – Retail sales; UK – Construction output