Monday 7 September
-Associated British Foods Q4 2020
The Share Centre said that while ABF reported stronger sales in July, profits for the year are expected to be between £300-£350m, a third of what they were in 2019 (£913m).
ABF took a hit to its interim profits and was forced to scrap its dividend after its subsidiary Primark shuttered all 376 of its stores during the lockdown period.
“Fortunately for the company its other businesses have been making up for Primark with good performances in the Agriculture, Sugar, Grocery and Ingredients businesses so the market will be interested to see if that has continued as expected,” the stock broker said.
–Dechra Pharmaceuticals full year results
-Halifax UK house price index
-German industrial production data
Tuesday 8 September
-International Airlines Group AGM
The stage is set for an investor backlash at the AGM of British Airways parent IAG with several major shareholders planning to vote against pay rewards for its top executives, including outgoing CEO Willie Walsh.
Institutional Shareholder Services has also pleaded with shareholders to oppose the remuneration report which would see Walsh walk away with a £883,000 bonus as part of a total pay package worth just under £3.2m.
Critics have deemed Walsh’s pay package excessive as the aviation industry reels from the fallout from the Covid crisis. IAG has cut more than 10,000 British Airways jobs and is in the process of seeking shareholder approval for a £2.8bn rights issue.
-H1 results Nucleus
The adviser platform said that despite the hit from Covid-19 early in the year, assets under management surged to £15.8bn at the end of June, up 13.1% on the previous quarter and 3.2% year-on-year. Net inflows of £433m over the first six months of the year are almost twice as high as the £245m worth of business it attracted in H1 2019.
-Ashtead Q1 trading update
The equipment rental company saw profits plunge 52% in Q4 and AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould notes analysts are expecting a second consecutive drop of 42% to £176m in Q1.
Mould said key to its future performance is its US operation Sunbelt which generates 85% of the group’s sales and more than 90% of total profits.
“Ashtead noted in its full-year results back in June that the size of the fleet available to rent at Sunbelt started to stabilise in mid-April and subsequently began to grow again as the business adopted to new working practices in light of the pandemic,” he said.
“Although Congress continues to bicker over a fresh fiscal stimulus programme, industrial sentiment indicators continue to improve in the USA – the ISM purchasing managers’ index hit 56 in August, its best mark since 2018 – and this has historically been a good sign for the shares.”
–Interim results for house builder Vistry, builders’ merchant Travis Perkins, aerospace firm Meggitt and tonic maker Fevertree Drinks
-H1 results JD Sports Fashion
Shares in the athleisure retailer have recouped most of their losses since the Covid sell-off even though the dividend remains suspended, The Share Centre said.
“As a high street retailer, the return of customers to physical stores will be crucial,” it continued. “Although, lockdowns have eased there are signs that in city centres traffic is still some way off from pre-Covid levels. A question for investors is how well has it done to transition some sales to its online platform where competition is fierce and brands are selling direct to consumers.”
–US NFIB smaller companies sentiment index
-In the US athletic apparel retailer Lululemon and Slack post quarterly results
Wednesday 9 September
–Work & Pensions Select Committee Call of Evidence into ‘Protecting pension savers – five years on from the Pension Freedoms: Pension Scams’ closes
-Bank of Canada interest rate decision
The bank’s target overnight rate stands at 0.25% and it is running a quantitative easing programme of C$5bn a week
–H1 results for Computacenter and Tullow Oil
–Trading update from Biffa
–Chinese inflation data
–US Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS)
–Quarterly results from US computer software company Oracle and workout equipment maker Peloton
Thursday 10 September
-ECB interest rate decision
Mould says central banks may have room to manoeuvre still by adding more QE, introducing negative rates and pressing governments for more fiscal stimulus.
Currently the ECB’s main refinancing rate stands at zero and its €1.4trn Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme is set to run its course until June 2021.
“It does not feel as if rates are going to go up in a hurry (there have been 182 cuts and just four increases worldwide in 2020), especially as the US Federal Reserve is now leading the debate when it comes to inflation averaging and letting inflation overshoot its 2% target, at least for a while.”
– First-half results from WM Morrison Supermarkets, retailer Dunelm and brickmaker Forterra
-US oil inventories data
-US weekly unemployment claims data
Friday 11 September
-Full year results from Ashmore
In a July trading update the emerging markets specialist said it had grown assets by $6.8bn from $76.8bn to $83.6bn in June, recovering from a 22% hit to AUM at the end of March.
Chief executive Mark Coombs said investment performance had been positive across its fixed income, equities and multi-asset strategies but said blended debt, local currency, external debt and overlay / liquidity funds had continued to see redemptions, pushing net outflows to $2.2bn.
-UK GDP growth data
-UK manufacturing, industrial output and construction data
-US inflation figures
-US Federal budget balance
-US grocery chain Kroger releases quarterly results
