Against a backdrop of considerable stock market volatility, BT, ITV, Compass and Sage are the big London names reporting in the coming week, while investors interested in US stocks will be hoping for some reassuring earnings from Disney, EA and Coinbase.
It's a quiet start to the week in London but Monday does bring a vote on Aviva's somewhat complex shareholder returns process (helpfully explained here).
It remains fairly quiet in the Square Mile on Tuesday but there are some bigger names reporting earnings across the Atlantic, including computer games giant Electronic Arts and young rival Roblox, while Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ:COIN) delivers figures not long after launching a marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corp and Warner Music Group will also unveiling numbers the same day, a few days before it's the turn of Star Wars owner The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) and electric truck hopeful Rivian.
Disney will have some way to go to beat its forecast-busting numbers from the preceding quarter, which were driven by the strength of its Disney+ streaming offering.
Attempting to make its mark in the streaming world with a big launch announcement at its final results in March, ITV PLC (LSE:ITV) instead seemed to spook investors instead, with its shares sent plummeting.
The broadcaster steps back into the spotlight on Wednesday with the first-quarter update needing to contain pretty impressive to reverse the near-37% share price losses since then (read the full ITV preview here).
Elsewhere, contract caterer Compass Group PLC (LSE:CPG) should be back more or less on an even keel after the trials and tribulations of pandemic-inspired lockdowns.
The market is expecting the company to deliver half-year revenues of a little over £11bn.
Management are looking for underlying operating margins to reach 6% by the end of the year, so comments on this and the impact of inflation will be a key element of the update.
Inflation being a global issue that central banks are attempting to arrest with interest rates hikes and other tightening measures – as seen in the past week – we will get more important data that could wobble markets further.
“No-one knows what’s coming next, not even central bankers, and the coming week may provide some further information," said analysts at AJ Bell, with inflation figures due from Germany on Tuesday and the US and China on Wednesday.
The US numbers will be key said Deutsche Bank's economists, "and Fed speakers will be back with a busy schedule. Both will be top
of mind for markets to gauge monetary policy and the macro outlook after this week's roller-coaster moves".
There’s lots to bear in mind as BT Group PLC (LSE:BT.A) rings in with its annual results on Thursday, including the looming presence of French billionaire Patrick Drahi’s Altice on the shareholder register.
Trade unions are also threatening industrial action unless wages are increased by 10% and competition is hotting up for its Openreach arm (read the full ITV preview here).
Shares in BT are slightly higher over the past 12 months, a rarity for shareholders in the former telecoms monopoly in recent years, and in contrast to the bumpy ride at Balfour Beatty plc (LSE:BBY), with the infrastructure contractor shedding a quarter of its value over the past 52 weeks.
Worries over rising costs, getting staff, supply chains are common themes currently, but with Balfour the worry is how much run for manoeuvre it has with its big civil engineering contracts.
Balfour should be able to mitigate inflation to some extent, says analyst Matt Britzman at Hargreaves Lansdown, as the value of both its UK and US portfolios are correlated with inflation and work to improve the order book means most contracts now see inflation borne by the client.
“The broader environment should also be supportive, he says, with governments in key areas of the UK, US and Hong Kong all committing billions to infrastructure spending”.
“Even so, we’ll be interested to hear commentary on how the wider market’s reacting to pressures.”
Macro news on Thursday includes UK’s snappily named 'short-term inductor day', with quarterly GDP, industrial and manufacturing production, and trade data, coming days after the Bank of England warned that a recession could be on the cards.
GDP grew a mere 0.1% in February, even though Russia didn’t begin its invasion of Ukraine until the latter days of the month.
While a 0.9% quarterly increase in GDP would be in line with the Bank of England’s estimate in the lasts policy review and so not have any implications for policy, analyst Marshall Gittler at BDSwiss said a deviation on the downside might "would only increase the concern of those members of the monetary policy committee who are worried about plunging the economy into recession.
"The market would probably react by removing even more tightening from the forecasts, which would be negative for GBP. A beat however wouldn’t prove anything at this point because the outlook is still grim. Thus I think we have an asymmetrical downside risk from the UK GDP figures.”
Then on Friday, depending on your definition of “tech”, there will be an update from London’s biggest in the sector, accountancy software firm Sage Group.
The Newcastle-based tech group has indicated it expects full-year year-on-year revenue growth of between 8% and 9% and at the half-year point, analysts expect the company to be well within that range at 8.4%, raising the prospect that management might ratchet up the bottom end of that range a bit.
“On balance we believe guidance may be left unchanged or at best raised to the upper end of the range. We think this is largely priced in,” said analysts at UBS.
Cloud-native annual recurring revenue grew 44% in in 2021, which UBS said should translate into revenue growth at the same rate in the first quarter and “we expect a similarly strong showing in Q2 albeit management may caution on tougher comparatives in H2”.
Significant announcements expected in the week 9-13 May
Monday 9th
Interims: Victrex PLC (LSE:VCT)
Trading announcements: Kosmos Energy Ltd (LSE:KOS, NYSE:KOS)
AGMs: Aviva PLC (LSE:AV.), Maintel Holdings PLC (AIM:MAI), Midwich Group PLC (AIM:MIDW)
Tuesday 10th
Finals: FD Technologies PLC (AIM:FDP), Shanta Gold, Skillcast Group PLC (AIM:SKL), Trellus Health PLC (AIM:TRLS)
Interims: Treatt PLC
AGMs: Albion Development VCT PLC, Centamin PLC (LSE:CEY, TSX:CEE, OTC:CELTF), Direct Line Insurance Group PLC (LSE:DLG), Fidelity European Trust PLC (LSE:FEV), Gresham Technologies, HG Capital Trust PLC, IWG PLC (LSE:IWG), Just Group PLC (LSE:JUST), MacFarlane Group PLC, Sancus Lending Group Limited, Temple Bar Investment Trust (LSE:TMPL) PLC
Economic Data: Wholesale Inventories (US)
Wednesday 11th
Finals: Airtel Africa PLC (LSE:AAF), Anexo Group PLC (AIM:ANX), Angling Direct PLC (AIM:ANG), Mirriad Advertising Ltd, Vertu Motors (AIM:VTU) PLC
Interims: Brewin Dolphin Holdings Plc (LSE:BRW), Compass Group PLC (LSE:CPG), Ten Lifestyle Group (AIM:TENG) PLC
Trading announcements: Conduit Holdings Limited, Renishaw PLC (LSE:RSW), Spirax-Sarco Engineering (LSE:SPX) PLC, Bank of Georgia Group PLC (LSE:BGEO), ITV PLC (LSE:ITV), Airtel Africa PLC (LSE:AAF), TUI PLC
AGMs: Abrdn Asian Income Fund Limited, Antofagasta PLC (LSE:ANTO), Capricorn Energy PLC (LSE:CNE, OTC:CRNZF), Cenkos Securities PLC (AIM:CNKS), Clarkson PLC (LSE:CKN), Conduit Holdings Limited, Harbour Energy (LSE:HBR) PLC, Hostelworld (LSE:HSW) Group PLC, Impact Healthcare REIT PLC (LSE:IHR), Irish Continental Group (LSE:ICGC) PLC, Jupiter Fund Management PLC (LSE:JUP), Marshalls (LSE:MSLH) PLC, Maven Income & Growth VCT 4 PLC, National Express PLC, Rentokil Initial PLC (LSE:RTO), Savills PLC (LSE:SVS), Schroder Asian Total Return Investment Company PLC, Spirax-Sarco Engineering (LSE:SPX) PLC, Spire Healthcare Group Plc (LSE:SPI), T Clarke PLC, Tasty PLC (AIM:TAST), TP ICAP Finance PLC, Transglobe Energy Corp, Uniphar PLC (AIM:UPR), Windward Ltd (AIM:WNWD)
Economic Data: MBA Mortgage Applications (US), Consumer Price Index (US), Crude Oil Inventories (US), Retail Sales (UK)
Thursday 12th
Finals: BT Group PLC (LSE:BT.A), 3i PLC
Interims: Grainger Plc (LSE:GRI), Titon Holdings (LSE:TON) PLC, Versarien PLC
Trading announcements: Balfour Beatty plc (LSE:BBY), Seraphim Space Investment Trust PLC (LSE:SSIT), Coca-Cola HBC, ConvaTec
FTSE 100 ex-dividends to reduce index by 3.31 points: (BP PLC (LSE:BP.) $0.0546)
AGMs: Alfa financial Software Holdings Ltd, Anglo Pacific Group PLC (LSE:APF, TSX:APY, OTC:AGPIF), Baillie Gifford Shin Nippon PLC, BP PLC (LSE:BP.), Bridgepoint Group PLC (LSE:BPT), Cairn Homes plc (LSE:CRN), Cineworld Group PLC (LSE:CINE), Circassia Group PLC (AIM:CIR, OTC:CSSPF), Condor Gold PLC (AIM:CNR, TSX:COG, OTC:CNDGF), ContourGlobal PLC (LSE:GLO), ConvaTec Group PLC (LSE:CTEC), Empresaria Group plc (AIM:EMR), Eurocell PLC (LSE:ECEL), FBD Holdings (LSE:FBH) PLC, Genel Energy PLC (LSE:GENL, OTC:GEGYY), Gresham House PLC (LSE:GHE), Gym Group PLC, Hiscox Ltd (LSE:HSX), Howden Joinery Group (LSE:HWDN) PLC, Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LSE:LLOY), Logistics Development Group PLC (AIM:LDG), Luceco PLC (LSE:LUCE), Michelmersh Brick Holdings Plc (AIM:MBH), OSB Group PLC (LSE:OSB), Quilter PLC (LSE:QLT), Rolls Royce Holdings PLC, Secure Trust Bank PLC (LSE:STB), Shefa Gems, Sig PLC, Unbound Group PLC (AIM:UBG), Unite Group PLC (LSE:UTG)
Economic Data: Continuing Claims (US), Initial Jobless Claims (US), Producer Price Index (US), RICS Housing Market Survey (UK), Balance of Trade (UK), GDP Preliminary (UK), GDP (UK), Index of Services (UK), Industrial Production (UK), Manufacturing Production (UK)
Friday 13th
Interims: Sage Group PLC
Trading announcements: ContourGlobal PLC (LSE:GLO)
AGMs: ContourGlobal PLC (LSE:GLO), Derwent London (AIM:DLN) PLC, Metro Bank (LSE:MTRO) PLC, TT Electronics PLC (LSE:TTG)
Economic Data: Import and Export Price Indices (US), U. of Michigan Confidence Preliminary (US) Halifax House Price Index (UK)
USA earnings
Monday: Duke Energy, Simon Property, Microchip, BioNTech, Palantir
Tuesday: Electronic Arts, CoinBase, Roblox, Fox, Warner Music
Wednesday: Walt Disney, Rivian
Thursday: Norwegian Cruise Lines