It’s crunch time on a number of fronts tomorrow and if Boris Johnson thought the headlines couldn’t get any worse he might be in for a shock.
Ofgem announces the new level of the energy price cap at 11am, having brought forward the date by a week.
The new level is predicted to be around £2,000 a year or an eye-watering 50% hike to reflect the rocketing price of wholesale gas.
Reports today suggest the government already has plans in place to alleviate some of the pain, both for consumers and suppliers, which will cost it between £5-6bn.
At the same time as the energy price cap goes up, the Bank of England is expected to confirm another interest rate rise to follow January’s 0.25% hike.
It will be the UK’s first back-to-back rate rise since 2004 and will take the UK Bank Rate to 0.5%.
An end to the Bank's corporate bond-buying programme is also widely expected.
Shell and BT headline the company news
Ahead of those two big announcements come Shell PLC and BT Group PLC (LSE:BT.A).
Shell has the potential embarrassment of unveiling huge profits from the same set of circumstances that Ofgem will cite later on when it raises the energy cap.
The oil, gas and chemicals should be doing very well with crude above US$90 per barrel even with its efforts to ‘greenify’ its portfolio.
For Q4 alone, profit is seen coming in at US$8.8bn versus US$393mln.
Cash flow amounted to some US$6bn in the months between July and September (and oil prices are higher still since then and rising further).
How much of that cash flow is flowing into debt reduction will be something to note.
BT, meanwhile, is doing its bit to add to rising inflation having already announced a price rise for this coming year of 9.3%.
If revenues were rising at the same pace there might not be so much takeover talk surrounding the former telecoms monopoly.
And 18% shareholder Altice will be a presence even if gets no direct mention in the statement.
An update on the disposal of BT Sport and what this heralds for financials for the coming fiscal year is more of a possibility.
UBS estimates BT Sport is seeing modest losses currently (£100m), so a sale might boost earnings but consumer revenues will be affected and churn rise.
For Q3, the consensus is for group revenues to fall 1.6% to £5,39bn and underlying profits (EBITDA) to rise by 1.5% to £1,91bn.
Thursday 3 February
Finals: Bankers Investment Trust PLC (LSE:BNKR)
Interims: Renishaw PLC (LSE:RSW)
Trading announcements: Cranswick PLC (LSE:CWK) , Virgin Wines UK PLC (AIM:VINO) , BT Group, Compass Group PLC (LSE:CPG), Cranswick PLC (LSE:CWK), Shell PLC (LSE:SHEL, NYSE:SHEL, EURONEXT:SHELL) , UK Commercial Property Income REIT
AGMs: Agronomics Limited, Baillie Gifford European Growth Trust PLC, Compass Group PLC (LSE:CPG), Future PLC (LSE:FUTR) , Hargreave Hale AIM VCT PLC, Hyve Group PLC (LSE:HYVE) , JPMorgan Indian Investment Trust PLC, Sage Group PLC, Ten Lifestyle Group (AIM:TENG) PLC, Unicorn AIM VCT PLC
Economic data: Initial Jobless Claims (US), PMI Services (UK), BoE Interest Rate Decision (UK)