Monday 21 August
- First-half results from Thungela Resources
- Rightmove house price index
- In the US, quarterly results from Zoom Video Communications
Tuesday 22 August
- First-half results from John Wood and Anexo
- UK government borrowing
- US existing homes sales
- Annual BRICS summit, Johannesburg, South Africa (day 1 of 3)
- In Australia, quarterly results from BHP
- In Asia, quarterly results from Baidu and Geely Automobile
- In the US, quarterly results from Lowe’s, Medtronic, Coty and Toll Brothers
Wednesday 23 August
- First-half results from Costain
- Nvidia Q2 results
US tech firm Nvidia will announce its Q2 trading update on Wednesday.
The firm has enjoyed a stellar 2023 so far and is the single-best performing stock in the S&P 500 this year.
Sophie Lund-Yates, Hargreaves Lansdown lead equity analyst said: “Nvidia has been on an exciting journey this year, with the valuation seeing a 205% uplift since January. This all hinges on optimism around the use of the group’s hi-tech chips, which are favourites for AI products. Coupled with a substantial earnings beat last quarter, hopes are high. Analysts are optimistic that AI-related demand will have remained elevated at levels high enough to satisfy investors.
“But, keep in mind the frothier valuation does increase the chance of disproportionate reactions should there be any disappointment from next week’s results. Guidance was for second-quarter revenues of about $11bn – so this is the benchmark to watch.
She added: “Guidance for demand in the new quarter will also move the dial, especially any commentary around the effect of supply constraints. And the final piece of the puzzle won’t be linked to AI, but gaming. This industry is what Nvidia was built on, and investors want to see if there’s been any let up in the challenging consumer environment.”
| Top ten performing stocks in S&P 500 in 2023 to date | ||
| Change in share price | Market cap ($ billion) | |
| NVIDIA | 198% | 1,074 |
| Meta Platforms | 145% | 757 |
| Royal Caribbean Cruises | 105% | 26 |
| Carnival | 101% | 21 |
| Tesla | 83% | 716 |
| Pulte | 81% | 18 |
| Align Technology | 70% | 27 |
| West Pharmaceutical Services | 69% | 29 |
| Advanced Micro Devices | 66% | 173 |
| Amazon | 61% | 1,394 |
Source: Refinitiv data, Sharepad
- Flash purchasing managers’ indices from Japan, Asia, Europe, the UK and USA
- US new homes sales
- US oil inventories
- In Asia, quarterly results from Xiaomi
- In the US, quarterly results from Analog Devices, Snowflake, Splunk, Grab and Abercrombie & Fitch
Thursday 24 August
- Full-year results from Hays
- First-half results from CRH, South32, Harbour Energy and Sopheon
- US durable goods orders
- US weekly initial unemployment claims
- Central bank symposium at Jackson Hole
The annual central bank symposium at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, takes place between 24-26 August.
During the gathering of economists, financial market participants and academics, Federal Reserve chair will deliver a speech at 10:05am ET (3:05pm in the UK) on Friday.
Discussing the importance of the annual meeting, AJ Bell’s investment director Russ Mould and head of financial analysis Danni Hewson said: “Some investors will hang on every word, in the view that central bankers remain masters of the universe, able to control inflation and maintain both economic growth and financial market stability through their deft use of interest rates and, sometimes, less orthodox tools such as Quantitative Easing (or even Quantitative Tightening) and yield curve control.”
“Others will view the event as nothing more than a meeting of prolix windbags who have never correctly called a recession in their lives, left monetary policy too loose for too long and made a mess of their call that inflation would prove ‘transitory.’”
They added: “For the moment at least, markets seem content to buy into the view that central banks can engineer a return to the ‘Goldilocks’ scenario which has served risk assets so well over the past decade or so, namely modest economic growth, modest inflation and relatively low interest rates.
“Markets are even wondering whether major Western economies will enjoy no landing at all, and keep on growing, and thus dodge the recession and soft or hard landing which so frightened share prices in mid-2022.”
- In Australia, quarterly results from Qantas
- In Asia, quarterly resultsfrom CNOOC and AIA
- In the US, quarterly results from Intuit, Pinduoduo, Marvell, Dollar Tree, Gap and Nordstrom
Friday 25 August
- First-half results from PureTech Health
- Belgian Courbe Synthetique industrial sentiment survey
- German Ifo industrial sentiment survey
- In Asia, quarterly results from Meituan
