Monday 20 April
– Rightmove UK house price index
– Quarterly results from Philips and Swedish engineer Sandvik
– Quarterly results from IBM and Halliburto in the US,
Tuesday 21 April
– Associated British Foods interim results
– Netflix Q1 results
AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said Netflix has rallied back above the $400-a-share mark for the first time since summer 2018, having initially gone down when Covid-19 hit markets as investors pretty much sold anything they could lay their hands on.
“The firm has, so far, been seen as one that may be relatively unaffected by the Covid-19 outbreak, as customers binge-watch series after series, although a prolonged lockdown could conceivably hit content creation and production of new, prime content in the future,” he said.
– UK unemployment data
The UK data is a little bit less timely and this dataset will cover the period for December to February – still a good three weeks before the government imposed the lockdown. As such, these numbers will not be anywhere near as dramatic as the American ones, said Mould.
– BHP Group trading update
– SAP quarterly results
– Coca-Cola and Philip Morris quarterly results
– London Stock Exchange Group sales and revenue release
Share Centre analysts said the turbulence in markets as a result of the coronavirus has increased dealing activity significantly and investors will be keen to hear how the LSE has been affected across its various businesses as well as the measures management have taken. “The shares have held up relatively well benefitting from the groups increased diversification which has been viewed as a positive.”
– German Zew sentiment index (March)
Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management head of MPS and passive Jordan Sriharan said the index had actually began to move back up at the start of the year, but that confidence was short-lived as the effects of Covid-19 began to play out and at February the index had plunged to -43.1. “The March reading is forecast to improve to -30, which perhaps reflects a country that has dealt with the fallout from the virus better than others.”
– US existing home sales (March)
Sriharan said given the timing of the data set, the forecast is for a small downward revision to 5.39 million from 5.77 million, but this number could be materially lower. “Should this be the case, the negative knock-on impact for the price of assets linked to US residential property could be substantial.”
Wednesday 22 April
– Full-year results from boohoo.com
– First-half results from WH Smith
– US oil inventory data.
– In Europe, quarterly results from Ericsson, Kone and AkzoNobel
Thursday 23 April
– Unilever Q1 sales and revenue release
The Share Centre said the defensive nature of Unilever’s business is really helping it weather the current market and economic turbulence, noting shares have comfortably outperformed the market and, in contrast to many other FTSE 100 companies, the market expects it to raise its dividends by around 9% this year.
“In these first quarter numbers the market will be looking to see if the slowdown in South Asia has continued and whether the company still expects to achieve sales growth at the lower end of the 3-5% target range it gave previously.”
– Taylor Wimpey Q1 sales and revenue release
The company has taken fairly drastic measures during the virus outbreak by shutting all of its constructions sites and sales offices and slashed costs to preserve cash, the Share Centre noted.
“We may get the full quarterly trading update due to the moratorium but if there is any reporting on the first quarter then it’s likely to show that trading up until the outbreak in Europe was reasonably robust with a solid order book. However the outlook will be all-important and investors will be bracing themselves for the lack of confidence in the economy and job cuts to hit upon buyer footfall and interest in moving home once the lockdown is lifted.”
– UK government public sector borrowing figures
– US new housing sales data
– US weekly unemployment insurance claims data
– Japan inflation figures
Friday 24 April
– Eurozone preliminary manufacturing PMIs (April)
Sriharan said the data for March was understandably weak, at 44.5 the index had fallen to lows not seen since the eurozone crisis and even then the index only hit a low of 44 in July of 2012. The April data is forecast to fall to 40.2 which would be a new low for the cycle. However, for context, it did fall into the low 30s in the depths of the financial crisis.
– German Ifo business confidence survey
– Belgian Courbe Synthetique business confidence survey
– In Japan, quarterly results from Sony
