In a week of news from the housebuilding sector, London and South East-focused Berkeley Group Holdings PLC (LSE:BKG) is the first to report.
Scandals such as cladding and upward-only ground rents have seen share prices suffer despite decent numbers, with concerns about the impact of rising mortgage costs adding to the unease.
A bid from Vistry for rival Countryside on Monday has underlined there is still some value there, but sentiment is very much against the sector with analysts at HSBC predicting UK housing demand will fall by up to 20% over the next year and house prices by over 7%.
Key for Berkeley in this week’s interims will be whether its forecast of earnings of £545m in the current financial year to April is intact, said UBS.
Also in construction, US-focused plant hire group Ashtead is usually a decent bellwether for the health of the American economy and what it says about first quarter trading will be keenly watched.
Worries over recession both here and in North America have taken a toll on its share price, which is down 25% this year even with record annual numbers.
But as for all companies and economies, the stock market is looking at least six months ahead for Ashtead and whether boss Brendan Horgan's prediciton that revenues would grow 12-14% this year is a tad ambitious.
Elsewhere, the drought conditions and energy crisis in Europe are likely to have some consequences for FTSE-100 listed packaging companies, of which DS Smith PLC (LSE:SMDS) is due to reveal its fiscal first quarter results on Tuesday.
Broker Jefferies said the weather “may be a modest negative” for box demand, while there is also investor concern about how the macro uncertainty might affect industrial and consumer box demand.
Rising costs are another issue, as rival Mondi pointed out in a recent update, with wood and therefore paper costs rising as more wood is burned in fireplaces as Europeans look for new fuel sources amid a dearth of Russian gas.
Latest monthly sales figures from Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer UMC on Tuesday, and rival TSMC on Thursday, should “be interesting, especially as macroeconomic data from electronics-heavy Taiwan points to a softening in activity”, according to analysts at AJ Bell.
The technological importance of Taiwan’s leading foundries TSMC and UMC “cannot be underestimated, especially at a time when global supply chains are stressed and many manufacturers continue to bemoan semiconductor shortages”.
Adding to the reported 242 interest rate increases from central banks this year, according to the cbrates.com website (more than seen in 2018 to 2021 combined) the Reserve Bank of Australia is expected to move its rate higher on Tuesday and Canada on Thursday.
Four rate hikes have taken the cash rate to 1.85%, the highest figure since spring 2016. A further quarter-point rise is expected by the market at this meeting to take the headline rate to 2.1%.
Significant announcements expected on Tuesday
Trading updates: Ashtead Group PLC (LSE:AHT), Berkeley Group Holdings PLC, DS Smith PLC
Interims: Capricorn Energy PLC (LSE:CNE, OTC:CRNZF), Gamma Communications (AIM:GAMA) PLC, Headlam Group (LSE:HEAD) PLC, Inspired PLC (AIM:INSE), IQE PLC (AIM:IQE), Lords Group Trading PLC (AIM:LORD), Luceco PLC (LSE:LUCE), Michelmersh Brick Holdings Plc (AIM:MBH), Pebble Group PLC, Quixant PLC (LSE:QXT)
Finals: Accrol Group Holdings PLC (AIM:ACRL), Alumasc Group PLC (AIM:ALU), NCC Group PLC (LSE:NCC), PCI-PAL PLC (AIM:PCIP)
AGMs: ABRDN New Dawn Investment Trust PLC, Ashtead Group PLC, Berkeley Group Holdings PLC, Brickability Group PLC (AIM:BRCK), Castelnau Group Ltd, Monks Investment Trust PLC (LSE:MNKS), Renold PLC (AIM:RNO), DS Smith PLC
Economic announcements: PMI Construction (UK), PMI Services (US), ISM Prices Paid (US), ISM Services (US)