Thursday brings another jam-packed morning of company news, including Ladbrokes owner Entain, fund manager M&G, as well as a smattering of property news from Derwen, Savills and RICS housing market data.
Numbers from copper miner Antofagasta PLC (LSE:ANTO) will also be instructive for more than its own shareholders, as a firm copper price is often seen as a good sign for the health of the global economy due to its many industrial uses.
However, fears of a global slowdown are weighing on the price of Dr Copper, down from $10,000 a ton to below $8,000, and therefore also the Chilean copper miner and FTSE 100 member.
“In terms of Antofagasta more specifically, shareholders will look for confirmation of three sets of figures, after the disappointing second-quarter trading update released in late July,” said analyst Danni Hewson at AJ Bell.
Alongside February’s full-year results for 2021, it said output this year would drop by around 6% at the mid-point of guidance, though a July update revealed that the first half had come in down around 26% owing to an incident at the Los Pelambres mine, and drought in Chile.
Expenses are also key, with net cash costs having risen 5% to $1.20 a pound last year, with further increases looking likely in 2022 and guidance pointing to a jump to $1.55 per pound initially, with the output shortfall now expected to raise this to $1.65 a pound, or $3,650 a metric tonne.
Along with capital expenditure, which is seen rising from US$1.8bn in 2021 to US$1.9bn for 2022, this will share how profits and cash flow come in.
“Analysts and investors will look to management for any comment on the political situation in Chile,” said Hewson, with president Gabriel Boric failing in his attempt to nationalise key copper, lithium and gold assets, after Parliament voted it down, but potentially eyeing new, higher, mining royalty payments.
Across the pond, many early investors in electric vehicle startup Rivian Automotive Inc (NASDAQ:RIVN) are looking very forlornly at its US$78 IPO price.
Major stakeholders Ford and Amazon took huge write-downs on their stakes in the business over the past six months, with the shares hit a low of just below US$20 after its Q1 earnings announcement.
Production has got underway, though, with 2,553 vehicles built in the first quarter and 1,227 delivered, with management confident this would see 4,000 vehicles produced in the second.
With Q1 revenue of US$95m below expectations of US$131.2m, and losses coming in at US$1.6bn or US$1.43c a share, investment in a new factory means losses are expected to come in higher at US$1.60c a share for Q2.
Earnings from Illumina Inc (NASDAQ:ILMN), the specialist in analysis of genetic variation and biological function, are important for UK investors too, especially those backing Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust PLC (LSE:SMT), as it is its fourth largest holding.
In the first quarter the genomics group reported a near halving of earnings per share to US$0.55 due to a significant operating loss from its acquisition of GRAIL, the maker of the Galleri blood test, which it snapped up last August.
Boss Francis deSouza said the group's core business fundamentals are "robust", with record orders and a record backlog, with GRAIL gaining "traction".
Illumina is expected to post earnings of US$0.63 per share for the past quarter.
Significant announcements on Thursday 11 August
Interims: Antofagasta PLC, Coca-Cola HBC AG, Derwent London PLC, Empiric Student Property PLC, Empresaria Group PLC, Entain PLC, M&G PLC, Network International Holdings PLC, Pressure Technologies PLC, Savills PLC
AGMs: Inspecs Group PLC, Marks Electrical Group PLC, Silver Bullet Data Services Group PLC
Ex-dividends to reduce the FTSE 100 index by: 24.71 (Ashtead, Informa, Rio Tinto, Shell, Barclays, SEGRO, Astrazeneca, Standard Chartered, Pearson, BP, Fresnillo)
Economic announcements: RICS Housing Market Survey (UK), Continuing Claims (US), Initial Jobless Claims (US), Producer Price Index (US), Chinese inflation, retail sales, industrial production
US earnings: Illumina, Rivian Automotive