Coal may not be up in lights ahead of Glencore PLC (LSE:GLEN) releasing its full-year results on Tuesday, but the mineral will nevertheless grab centre stage on the back of record prices that are tipped to send the commodity giant’s profits soaring.
Revenues in the past year are forecast by UBS to jump 41% to US$201bn with underlying profits more than tripling to US$14.2bn after depreciation.
Strong markets for cobalt, another of Glencore’s staples, have strengthened the current tailwind, with the company now pivoting towards battery metals.
Reflecting that strategic shift, disposals will be a theme in the results, according to UBS.
In December, the miner said the process to exit from ten projects is ongoing, with 15 more under review, and this will throw up opportunities for more big dividend payments suggests the broker.
There are also whispers that the whole business could be of interest to some rivals.
Plus500 heading for raised guidance
Down on the FTSE 250, Plus500 Ltd (LSE:PLUS) is also scheduled to publish its preliminary results, with online broker's shares up almost two-thirds since the start of the pandemic.
Last month, the company said it expected full-year results to exceed previous market expectations, even with a relatively slow fourth quarter.
Analysts had expected revenues to be US$655mln, but the company said last month sales will be at least US$718mln, with earnings per share of US$3.10.
Profits will be lower than the annus mirabilis of 2020 and broker Peel Hunt forecasts another reduction in profitability in 2022 due to further softening of revenues.
With the big numbers already out there, investors will be looking to hear how recent market volatility has affected this year's trading outlook and further details on management's plans to diversify the group into equity trading and US futures and options.
UK jobs and earnings
Ahead of the potentially bigger inflation news the day after, the Office for National will release unemployment and wage numbers covering the three months to the end of 2021, along with an update on jobless claims in January.
The previous report showed UK unemployment apparently fell back to its lowest level since July 2020, with a fall to 4.1% in the headline rate.
Analysts felt this was overshadowed by a fall in wages to 3.8%, ie not keeping up with inflation and so putting further pressure on incomes via the cost-of-living squeeze.
With upward pressure on prices, this meant wage growth barely covered inflation in November, undermining real wages and household spending power.
The number of vacancies also increased, rising to 1.25m, and compared to pre-pandemic the figures showed that there were 459k fewer people in work, with no obvious sign that these people would return to the workforce any time soon.
"This squeeze is likely to have significant consequences on UK retail sales growth in the coming months, after the big -3.7% fall we saw in December," said analysts at CMC Markets.
Surveys point to year-on-year growth in average weekly earnings, excluding bonuses, edged down to 3.6% in December, from 3.8% in November.
Significant announcements expected Tuesday 15 February:
Finals: Glencore PLC (Glencore PLC (LSE:GLEN)), Plus500 Ltd (Plus500 Ltd (LSE:PLUS)), RM Plc (LSE:RM.) (RM Plc (LSE:RM.))
AGMs: Dewhurst (AIM:DWHT) (Dewhurst (AIM:DWHT)) PLC, Nexus Infrastructure PLC
Economic announcements: Unemployment report (UK), Producer Price Index (US)