Monday 4 September
- First-half results from Belvoir and Ashtead Technology
Tuesday 5 September
- Full-year results from Craneware and Alumasc
- First-half results from STV, Michelmersh Brick and Johnson Service
- Trading statement from DS Smith
- Interest rate decision in Australia
On Tuesday, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will convene to decide its next action on interest rates. Twenty four hours later, the Bank of Canada will follow suit.
The meeting will be RBA governor Philip Lowe’s final at the helm of the central bank before he is replaced by current deputy Michele Bullock later this month.
AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould and head of financial analysis Danni Hewson said Bullock will take over following criticism of the RBA’s workings, after rapid rate rises took a toll on the country’s housing market.
They added: “Both the RBA and the Bank of Canada did nothing at their last meeting, so they will be under the microscope this time, as investors look ahead to decisions from the European Central Bank on the 14th, US Federal Reserve on the 20th and the Bank of England on the 21st September.
“The RBA has left rates unchanged for two meetings in a row, at 4.10%, and economists think it may do so again this time around,” the duo added.
“On 6 September, attention will switch from Sydney to Ottowa, when the Bank of Canada will make its latest announcement. Governor Tiff Macklem is mid-way through his seven-year term and faces the same challenge as Mr Lowe and other policymakers, namely juggling inflation on one hand and economic growth on the other, while keeping an eye on wider financial market stability at the same time.
“The Bank of Canada paused on rates in March and April but hiked by a quarter-point at each of its June and July meetings to take its headline overnight interest rate to 5%. The current consensus is that Mr Macklem and colleagues will hike rates again this time, to 5.25%, but that will then prove the peak.”
- British Retail Consortium retail sales
- Japanese wage growth
- Purchasing managers’ indices (PMIs) for service industries in Japan, Asia, Europe, the UK and US
- US factory orders
- In the US, quarterly results from ZScaler
Wednesday 6 September
- Full-year results from Darktrace, Ashmore and Accrol
- First-half results from Restaurant Group, Oxford Nanopore, Bakkavor, Hochschild Mining and EnQuest
- Trading statement from Halfords and WH Smith
- Interest rate decision in Canada
- UK construction industry purchasing managers’ index (PMI)
- Chinese trade balance
- EU retail sales
- Chinese trade balance
- Federal Reserve Beige Book
- In Asia, monthly sales figures from silicon chip foundry UMC
- In the US, quarterly results from GameStop
Thursday 7 September
- Full-year results from Genus
- First-half results from Beazley, Melrose Industries, Direct Line, Synthomer, Playtech, Hilton Food and M&C Saatchi
- Trading statements from Currys and Inspecs
- Halifax UK house price index
- Chinese inflation figures
- German industrial production
- EU inflation
- US oil inventories
- US weekly initial unemployment claims
- In the US, quarterly results from DocuSign
Friday 8 September
- First-half results from Computacenter and Petershill Partners
- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) monthly sales figures
The world’s largest semiconductor producer TSMC will unveil its monthly sales figures on Friday. Firms such as Nvidia rely on TSMC for the production of their chipsets. Therefore, AJ Bell’s Mould and Hewson said TSMC’s monthly sales figures will provide an insight into the state of business flows across the silicon chip industry.
The pair noted that in 2022 TSMC generated $76bn (£60.2bn) sales, roughly an eighth of total global chip sales.
They said: “Nvidia may be guiding sales and profits up, but TSMC is currently doing the opposite. Chief executive C.C Wei and chief financial officer Wendell Huang cut sales and profits forecasts again alongside July’s second-quarter earnings, both for the third quarter and the full year.
“For the third quarter, TSMC now expects sales of $16.7 billion to $17.5 billion (£13.2bn-£13.8bn), a gross margin of 51.5% to 53.5% and an operating margin of 38% to 40%, which implies an operating profit of $6.7bn at the midpoint, down by a third year-on-year. For 2023 overall, the company now expects sales to drop 10%.”
Mould and Hewson added: “None of this means Nvidia is bound to trip up or be caught out by double-ordering, and it could be that the American firm’s order flow gives TSMC a massive boost. High-performance computing represented 44% of first-half sales and smartphones 33% and both categories showed a quarter-on-quarter drop between of 5% and 9% respectively between April and June.
“TSMC will not provide any granularity here until its third-quarter results in October, but these latest monthly sales numbers will be studied to see if they at least fit with the revenue guidance for the third quarter, where the midpoint figure of $17.1bn implies a 16% year-on-year drop.”
- Trading statement from Berkeley
- Japanese GDP growth
- In Asia, monthly sales figures from the world’s biggest silicon chip foundry TSMC
- In the US, quarterly results from Kroger
