Coming the day after GSK, its once larger rival, AstraZeneca PLC (LSE:AZN) reports full-year numbers that will reflect the addition of its Alexion acquisition halfway through last year.
One of the areas of focus may be “what next?” for vaccines, with the company’s good deeds in helping ramp up production and distribution of the Oxford University coronavirus vaccine not going unpunished by markets in the early part of last year but with the shares now (modestly) higher than before the pandemic.
While chief executive Pascal Soriot has said he has no regrets over getting involved in vaccines, the head of the company’s biopharma division said a “big strategic question is under discussion” on whether it is a treatment area that the company wants to move into.
For now, the City number crunchers will be mainly concentrating on the performance of the underlying business, said UBS.
“Top-line momentum remains key for investors,” the analysts said, as well as its oncology growth drivers – Tagrisso, Lynparza and Imfinzi, which were below consensus expectations in the third quarter.
The trajectory of blood cancer drug Calquence will “continue to be of interest, reflecting how the positive top-line data from the head-to-head trial with Imbruvica translates into prescription uptake”.
Unilever boss under extra pressure
Changes are afoot at household goods giant Unilever PLC – the question is whether the current management will be in place to carry them through.
After years of the shares going nowhere, the final straw for many investors was the offer to buy Glaxo’s consumer arm for £50bn last month, which was hastily pulled after a fierce backlash.
Alan Jope, the Anglo-Dutch business’s chief executive, has proposed a plan to regroup around the fastest growing brands and buy new ones, but with veteran US corporate raider Nelson Peltz now on the shareholder roster he might need to pull another rabbit out of the hat.
Consensus forecasts are for Thursday’s full-year numbers to show sales of €52bn, a 4% rise on an underlying basis with underlying operating profits of €9.5bn.
How Unilever is dealing with cost inflation will be another point of interest.
US inflation in the spotlight
The US consumer prices index for January will be “one of the biggest highlights” of the week, said Deutsche Bank.
This is because it will be the penultimate inflation print ahead of the Federal Reserve’s next meeting, in March, at which they’re widely expected to raise interest rates for the first time since 2018.
“However, the Fed and consensus forecasts have been repeatedly surprised by the strength of inflation over the last year, and it’s worth noting that eight of the last 10 CPI releases have seen the monthly headline figure come in above the consensus estimate,” the Deutsche economists said.
Monthly headline CPI growth is expected to slow to +0.4% in January from 0.5% last time, with Deutsche forecasting 0.3%, which would be the slowest monthly pace since August.
Headline annual inflation is estimated to step up to 7.3% from 7.0%, while core inflation, excluding food and fuel, climbs to 5.9% from 5.5%.
Announcements expected
Trading announcements: Watches of Switzerland Group PLC
Interims: Ashmore Group PLC, MJ Gleeson, Redrow PLC
Finals: AstraZeneca PLC (LSE:AZN), RELX PLC, Unilever PLC, Beazley PLC
AGMs: Benchmark Holdings PLC, easyJet PLC, Tritax Eurobox PLC
Economic data: RICS Housing Market Survey (UK), Consumer Price Index (US), Continuing Claims (US), Initial Jobless Claims (US)