Tuesday's business diary sees a smattering of company updates as well as UK labour market data ahead of the Bank of England meeting later in the week.
Economists on average expect the unemployment rate to have picked up slightly to 3.9% in the three-month period to October from the recent 3.8%, while wage growth is forecast to have weakened.
"Wages will be the main thing to watch in this month’s labour market release," said RBC Capital Markets, with average weekly wage growth seen easing to 3.4% from 3.6% for both the total and ex-bonus measures, with some predicting a rate of 3.3%.
In terms of stock exchange news, FTSE 100-listed Bunzl PLC (LON:BNZL) is the biggest company on the schedule, though not necessarily a household name as it supplies the sorts of things that other businesses need to do business such as disposable coffee cups, food wrap, hard hats, cleaning materials and rubber gloves.
The distribution company is releasing a pre-close trading statement on Tuesday which is not expected to be heavy on details, if last year is anything to go by.
Results this year have been consistent with weaker economic conditions, with underlying revenue dipping 1% in the third quarter as per management expectations.
In October’s update, Bunzl said it was not making any changes to the full-year projections, so investors will expect that to stay put.
Sales have been growing through acquisitions and there are “a number of ongoing discussions”, with £100mln invested so far this year.
“It is not impossible that management will spring a little Christmas purchase on investors next week,” analysts at Hargreaves Lansdown said in a note.
Oil mix
Oil services companies Petrofac PLC (LON:PFC) and Hunting PLC (LON:HTG) are both due to provide trading updates on Tuesday after a mixed time of late.
Hunting warned in October that its full-year profits would be pushed to the lower end of market expectations because of a continuing decline in US onshore drilling.
Third-quarter underlying profits (EBITDA) had dipped below the US$35mln and US$42.4mln it had pulled in the first and second quarters respectively.
Sales were squeezed in the last three months by a slowdown in drilling across North America, the FTSE 250 energy services provider said, anticipating that US drilling will keep going downhill, affecting results for the second half of the year.
Volatile oil prices in the past few months have led to lower investment and budgets being exhausted in exploration and production companies, it added.
As a result of weakness in US onshore, UBS forecast that Hunting's core Titan division would see revenues fall 11% compared to the first half and with EBITDA down 25%.
“In the trading update we will be looking out for any further colour here as well as any commentary on 2020 outlook”
Meanwhile, although still subject of an ongoing SFO bribery investigation, rival has Petrofac put out some positive news of late, including the sale of the remaining 51% stake in its Mexican oil & gas assets to free up capital and make the group more firmly focused on its core engineering business.
Some of the proceeds were used on an ‘entry-level’ position in the US onshore market, with the acquisition of W&W Energy Services.
"The hope is that the deal will give the group exposure to growing activity in the Permian basin in the Southern US – one of the world’s largest oil & gas producing regions," said William Ryder at Hargreaves Lansdown.
“Far more important in the near term though is the group’s ability to win new business, and it’s the size of the order book that we’ll be paying particular attention to next week.
"Petrofac revealed that it had been awarded $120m of contracts in November – in both the North Sea and Malaysia – but, given the $2bn of contracts awarded in the first half, it’s really just a drop in the ocean.”
Significant announcements on Tuesday December 17:
Finals: Pressure Technologies PLC (LON:PRES),
Interims: Smart Metering Systems PLC (LON:SMS)
Trading statements: Bunzl PLC (LON:BNZL), Hunting PLC (LON:HTG), Petrofac Ltd (LON:PFC), Trainline PLC (LON:TRN)
AGMs: Applied Graphene Materials PLC (LON:AGM), Sareum Holdings PLC (LON:SAR)
Economic data: UK unemployment