Along almost certainly more political fallout in Westminster on Thursday, investors will have results from Ladbrokes and Sportingbet owner Entain, housebuilder Persimmon and airline Jet2 to peruse.
An announcement is also expected from the UK Government’s Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy tomorrow on the results of the latest Contracts for Difference auctions, with the latest subsidy support allocation for new technologies.
The government will send out contracts to the successful generators, making a formal offer for a CfD, which are the government’s primary method of supporting renewable energy (read the full auction preview here).
This week the UK betting industry has meant to have been awaiting the publication of a major government white paper, although a report in the Guardian suggested concerns have been made in Westminster that No 10 policy advisers with past ties to the gambling industry "may be opposing tougher regulation designed to protect vulnerable people and addicts".
Even so, Entain PLC (LSE:ENT), for which the UK market is much less significant these days, will report second-quarter trading, with its shares down 32% since the start of the year but still up a quarter compared to before the pandemic.
Overall, a tougher trading outlook is envisaged for the group 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 delays previously 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, Persimmon PLC (LSE:PSN) will update on Thursday, with its shares down slightly further, 35%, so far this year as investors fret about how rises in interest and mortgage rates are affecting demand for the houses made by the company and its peers.
The shares now yield over 12% - though it is far from the only high-yielding builder that investors are overlooking (read the full Persimmon preview here).
Among other results on the day Jet2 PLC (AIM:JET2) – shares down 25% in the year to date – 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.
Back in April, Jet2 said its seat capacity for summer 2022 was roughly 14% higher than summer 2019 and bookings "are encouraging", with package holiday customers "displaying a materially higher mix of the total at +12ppts".
Macro matters
For macro watchers, there will also be minutes from the European Central Bank’s previous meeting, which “will be highly sought after, as markets try to gauge how the growth-inflation tradeoff is affecting policymakers' thinking”, said Deutsche Bank.
Ahead of Friday's main event of the US big non-farm payrolls report, there will be no ADP report of private payrolls, which normally comes a day earlier.
Earlier this week, the ADP Research Institute and the Stanford Digital Economy Lab announced that they are going to retool their jobs report methodology “to provide a more robust, high-frequency view of the labor market.”
As a result they will pause issuing the report with the aim of restarting it on the last day of August.
"I’ve often railed about the ADP report," says analyst Marshall Gittler at BDSwiss, "which usually comes out two days before the US nonfarm payrolls (NFP) that it’s supposed to track but unfortunately has precious little information content useful for forecasting the NFP."
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, 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)