Some interesting London-listed companies large and small with updates pencilled in for the coming week, including Entain, Sainsbury, Persimmon and Currys, not to mention some important economic data points.
There should be a relatively quiet start to the week for markets, with North America on holiday for the 4th of July celebrations for Independence Day, but after that there’s a packed financial diary, concluding with the big US jobs report on Friday.
For the UK, the big economic release will be the services sector PMI survey on Tuesday.
The US jobs report will be preceded by two more labour market updates, namely JOLTS on Wednesday and ADP’s report of private payrolls on Thursday, while minutes from the US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank’s previous meetings on Wednesday and Thursday respectively “will be highly sought after, as markets try to gauge how the growth-inflation tradeoff is affecting policymakers' thinking”, said Deutsche Bank.
Elsewhere, trade data will be due from key economies globally, including the US on Thursday, Germany on Monday and Japan on Friday.
TUESDAY 5 JULY
J Sainsbury PLC (LSE:SBRY) will issue its first-quarter trading statement for on Tuesday, having in April forecast that the year ahead would be impacted by “external pressures and uncertainties”.
It guided for underlying profit before tax of £630mln-£690mln.
The UK’s leading supermarkets are in a race to compete on price, amid weak consumer confidence and high inflation (see the full Sainsbury's preview here).
Tesco reported last month that its UK sales had fallen due to the cost-of-living crisis. Its UK sales dipped 1.5% to £9.88bn.
WEDNESDAY 6 JULY
Currys PLC (LSE:CURY) will be releasing its full-year results on Thursday, with the company hoping it achieves the previously profit guidance.
The hardware and electronics retailer downgraded its profit expectations for the current year after revenue fell over the peak Christmas trading period, impacted by a drop in demand and supply chain disruption.
The retailer now expects adjusted pre-tax profits of £155mln for the year to end-April, down from the £160mln it forecast when it announced its interims.
Since the decision to cut guidance in the middle of January, share price has tanked nearly 40%, currently changing hands at 67p.
A worse-than-expected set of results will hit the stock price, so some solid numbers is much needed.
THURSDAY 7 JULY
As the UK betting industry awaits the publication of a major government white paper in the week, Ladbrokes and Sportingbet owner Entain PLC (LSE:ENT) reports second-quarter trading on Thursday, with its shares down 26% since the start of the year but still up over a third compared to before the pandemic.
Overall, a tougher trading outlook is envisaged as we head into the second half, said analysts at Jefferies, “with pressure on the assumption of a return to double-digit online revenue growth”, especially due to regulatory delay announced in the Netherlands, slower growth in emerging markets, more tax in Australia and tougher times for consumers.
After revenue fell 6% at constant currency in the first quarter comparatives from the prior year will have remained tough in the second, so Jefferies expects only “a modest trend improvement”.
Elsewhere, housebuilder Persimmon PLC (LSE:PSN) will update on Thursday, with its shares down 35% so far this year as investors fret about how rises in interest and mortgage rates are affecting housing demand.
The shares now yield over 12% - though it is far from the only high-yielding builder that investors are overlooking (read the full preview here).
Among other results on the day Jet2 PLC (AIM:JET2) is forecast to deliver a slightly increased loss of £331mln on sales that have climbed to £1.28bn from £395mln the year before.
“We think the summer-time outlook will be a material focus,” said analysts at UBS.
FRIDAY 8 JULY
The US monthly jobs report, aka non-farm payrolls, is normally the big economic data point of the month, if not the week, while in the UK, there is not much in the diary apart from results from Vistry (see housebuilding preview).
As the NFP report comes amid persistent inflation pressures and economic growth wobbles, with investors worrying the Federal Reserve will hike rates so much that it leads to recession, it’s fair to say there will be extra attention on these numbers.
The market consensus forecast for payrolls at this early time is for 250k new jobs.
“This is still a healthy level in absolute terms but it would signify a slowdown in hiring,” said analyst Marshall Gittler at BDSwiss.
“The reason people watch the NFP so closely is that the US Fed has a ‘dual mandate’ – it’s required to pursue ‘the goals of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates’.”
However, Gittler said the Fed is currently most focused on the inflation aspect of its dual mandate.
“For that reason I think the average hourly earnings are likely to be more significant for the market than the NFP figure itself.
“One of the things that keeps central bankers up at night is the fear that inflation expectations will become ‘unanchored’, meaning people will think that inflation is going to be significantly higher than the Fed’s 2% target for a long time, and therefore they have to demand higher wages to keep up their lifestyle [leading to] a wage-price spiral that keeps inflation rising.
“Looking at the forecast for this month’s average hourly earnings, there doesn’t seem to be much risk of that.
“Not only are wages rising by significantly less than the rate of inflation, but the rate of growth slowed in April and May and is expected to slow further.
“This trend should alleviate some concern that the Fed will have to tighten drastically to get inflation down.
“That could be negative for the dollar.”
Significant announcements for week ending 8 July
Monday 4 July
Finals: Augmentum Fintech PLC (LSE:AUGM), Braemar Shipping Services (LSE:BMS) PLC, ReNeuron Group PLC (AIM:RENE)
Interims: Harmony Energy Income Trust PLC (LSE:HEIT), Porvair (AIM:PRV) PLC
AGMs: Active Energy Group PLC (LSE:AEG)
Tuesday 5 July
Finals: CML Microsystems Plc (LSE:CML), Supreme PLC (AIM:SUP)
Interims: Kitwave Group Ltd, J Sainsbury PLC (LSE:SBRY)
AGMs: CT Automotive Group PLC (AIM:CTA), Immediate Acquisition PLC, Keystone Law Group PLC (AIM:KEYS), Open Orphan PLC (AIM:ORPH, OTC:OPORF), Saga PLC (LSE:SAGA), Smartspace Software PLC (LSE:SMRT)
Economic announcements: PMI Services (UK), Factory Orders (US),
Wednesday 6 July
Finals: ActiveOps PLC (AIM:AOM), Argentex Group PLC (AIM:AGFX), D4T4 Solutions, Enteq Technologies PLC (AIM:NTQ), Redde Northgate PLC (LSE:REDD), Zoo Digital Group
Interims: Robert Walters PLC (LSE:RWA), Topps Tiles PLC (LSE:TPT)
Trading updates: Ten Entertainment Group PLC (LSE:TEG)
AGMs: Assura PLC, AVEVA Group PLC, Mining Minerals & Metals PLC, Sirius Real Estate Limited (LSE:SRE, JSE:SRE, OTC:SRRLF), Worldwide Healthcare Trust PLC (AIM:WWH)
Economic announcements: PMI Construction (UK), PMI Services (US), MBA Mortgage Applications (US), PMI Composite (US), ISM Prices Paid (US), ISM Services (US), Crude Oil Inventories (US),
Thursday 7 July
Finals: Baltic Classifieds Group PLC (LSE:BCG), Currys PLC (LSE:CURY), Jet2 PLC (AIM:JET2), Watches of Switzerland Group PLC (LSE:WOSG)
Interims: John Wood Group PLC
Trading updates: Entain PLC (LSE:ENT), Ferrexpo PLC (LSE:FXPO), Persimmon PLC (LSE:PSN), RS Group PLC (LSE:RS1), Time Finance, Victrex PLC (LSE:VCT)
Points to be deducted from the FTSE 100 by ex-divs: 5.67 (British American Tobacco, Coca Cola HBC, AVEVA, JD Sports, Next)
AGMs: 3i Infrastructure PLC (LSE:3IN), Brown (N) Group PLC, C&C Group PLC (LSE:CCR), Distil (AIM:DIS) PLC, Emmerson PLC (AIM:EML, OTC:EMSNF), FD Technologies PLC (AIM:FDP), Great Portland Estates (LSE:GPOR), Land Securities Group PLC (LSE:LAND), Maven Income & Growth VCT PLC, Octopus Apollo VCT PLC, Pets at Home Group PLC (LSE:PETS), Puma VCT 13 PLC, J Sainsbury PLC (LSE:SBRY), Severn Trent PLC (LSE:SVT), TomCo Energy PLC (AIM:TOM)
Economic announcements: Halifax House Price Index (UK), Continuing Claims (US), Initial Jobless Claims (US)
Friday 8 July
Finals: Great Eastern Energy Corp
Trading updates: Vistry Group PLC (LSE:VTY)
AGMs: Kavango Resources PLC (LSE:KAV, OTC:KVGOF)
Economic announcements: Nonfarm payrolls (US), Unemployment Rates (US), Wholesale Inventories (US), Consumer Credit (US)