Monday 23 August
–‘Flash’ purchasing managers’ indices from Asia, Europe, UK and US
-US existing homes sales figures
Tuesday 24 August
-Full-year results from Clipper Logistics
-First-half results from John Wood
-US new home sales data
-In the US, quarterly results from Medtronic
Wednesday 25 August
-First-half results from Costain
-German Ifo business sentiment survey
-Belgian Courbe Synthetique business sentiment survey
-US durable goods orders
-US oil inventories data
-In Asia, quarterly results from Xiaomi
-In the US, quarterly results from Salesforce.com, Snowflake and Splunk
-Grafton first-half results
AJ Bell noted shares in builders’ merchant Grafton trade at an all-time high, to reflect confidence in the UK’s construction cycle and home improvement boom, the company’s rigorous capital allocation policies and also its balance sheet, after the £520m sale of its traditional UK merchanting business, Plumbase.
In July’s trading update, the firm noted Grafton flagged a shortage of bulk cement as a hindrance at manufacturing, as well as wider shortages of raw materials and container shipping.
“Increased lead times and increased prices were the result and overall prices rose some 8% year-on-year, so analysts (and economists and central bankers) will be looking for any thoughts that CEO Gavin Slark may have on this front for the second half and beyond,” said AJ Bell.
Thursday 26 August
-Central bankers’ symposium in Jackson Hole (26-28 Aug)
“Some investors will view this as nothing more than a sounding post for prolix windbags who seem to think that centrally planning economies is a good idea – despite there being plentiful evidence to the contrary,” said AJ Bell.
“Others will hang on every word, in the belief that central banks’ policies are the key tool available when it comes to keeping the global economic show on the road – and financial markets too, for that matter – even once the pandemic is beaten back.”
-Polymetal first-half results
AJ Bell said the FTSE 100 member is the one of the world’s top 10 gold producers and top five silver producers. Just over a year ago, gold rose above $2,000 an ounce for the first time ever in early August, while silver hit a multi-year high near $29 at the same time.
“Both have stepped back a little bit from those peaks since and that may help to explain why Polymetal’s shares are down by a quarter over the past 12 months. This suggests that markets still think central banks have the economy in hand, that inflation is not going to gallop off and that policy can be tightened gently without rocking the economic boat.”
Analysts are likely to be looking at guidance on production for the full year, cost of production, profits and the dividend, it added.
-Full-year results from Hays
-First-half results from CRH and Hunting
-US weekly unemployment claims
-In Europe, quarterly results from Delivery Hero
-In the US, quarterly results from Dell, VMWare, Marvell, HP Inc, Peloton, Hormel and JM Smucker
Friday 27 August
-First-half results from Sopheon and BigBlu Broadband
-US personal income and personal consumer expenditure (PCE) data
-In Asia, quarterly results from Petrochina
