If the company events diary is to be believed, trading on Wednesday morning will be executed against a background of tumbleweed blowing aimlessly across the street.
The company events cannot usually be relied upon, however, and a FTSE 350 company is sure to sneak out an announcement, but otherwise coal distributor Hargreaves Services is about as big as it gets.
The company had the rare pleasure of releasing an upbeat trading update in December – the UK mining industry having not been in vibrant health since about the sixties – in which it said trading in the first half of the financial year had stabilised, and was in line with expectations.
In fact, the coal distribution arm was the star of the show and was set to exceed expectations, as was the Property & Energy portfolio, whereas the Industrial Services unit had not come up to snuff, due to a delay in a major project in Hong Kong.
On the macro front, UK unemployment figures are due out.
Dr Howard Archer, chief UK & European economist at IHS Markit, said these figures are getting increasingly harder to predict.
Nevertheless, that’s what economists are paid to do, and he sticks his neck out to predict a modest improvement in employment levels.
“The ongoing resilience of the economy through the fourth quarter of 2016 (when GDP growth remained at 0.6% quarter-on-quarter) should have provided support to the labour market; however, we expect appreciable business caution over the outlook to have had some limiting impact on employment,” Dr Archer.
“There were also indications in the February Markit/REC Report on Jobs that some businesses have had trouble recruiting suitable candidates to positions; however, the February survey of business conditions by the Bank of England’s Regional Agents reported that ‘Recruitment difficulties had been little changed’,” he added.
Significant announcements expected
Interims: Animalcare Group (LON:ANCR), Hargreaves Services PLC (LON:HSP)
Finals: Georgia Healthcare Group PLC (LON:GHG)