Monday 9 September
- First-half results from Computacenter
- Trading statement from C&C
- Japanese GDP growth
- Chinese inflation
- In the US, quarterly results from Oracle and Abcam
Tuesday 10 September
- First-half results from Central Asia Metals, Gamma Communications, Serica Energy, IQE, HViVO, Futura Medical and Inspecs
- UK unemployment, job vacancies and wage growth
- US NFIB smaller companies survey
- In the US, quarterly results from GameStop
Wednesday 11 September
- Full-year results from Ricardo, Pan African Resources and Frontier Development
- First-half results from Gym Group and Trustpilot
- UK GDP growth
- UK manufacturing, industrial and construction output
- US Federal budget balance
- US oil inventories
- In Europe, quarterly results from Inditex
WH Smith will release its full year trading update on 11 September, with the share price down near 10% in the past year and almost 38% in the past five years.
The company put in place a five part plan to regain some ground, including space growth, upping transaction values per customer, broadening the range of products, creating cost efficiencies and a “disciplined capital allocation”.
The third quarter update showed some benefits from the plan, with sales up 5% year-on-year. Sales were up 4% on a like-for-like basis, with the UK experiencing 9% like-for-like growth. The US, business, however, remained stagnant.
Russ Mould, AJ Bell investment director, Danni Hewson, AJ Bell head of financial analysis and Dan Coatsworth, AJ Bell investment analyst, said: “One concern was the lack of like-for-like sales growth in the US, where WH Smith had moved aggressively pre-COVID to establish an improved position through the acquisitions in 2018 and 2019 of technology specialist InMotion and then Marshall Retail Group.
“Start-up costs and investment in US contract wins and stores also mean the profit drop-through from an overall increase in revenues in North America is relatively limited for the moment, although the potential for a longer-term uplift is there as the operation reaches greater maturity. On the domestic front, the company may be hoping that an end to the rail strikes in the UK gives the Travel business here a bit of a lift as well.”
Outlook and updates for the next year are anticipated to come with the full-year results statement on 14 November.
Thursday 12 September
- Full-year results from Renishaw and Kier
- First-half results from Spire Healthcare, FeverTree Drinks, Inspired, Keystone Law and Harworth
- US producer price inflation
- US weekly initial unemployment claims
- In the USA, quarterly results from Adobe and Kroger
The European Central Bank will make its interest rate decision on Thursday 12 September, with markets anticipating a cut.
The ECB first cut this year in June, and economists now predict a cut from 4.25% to 4% of the main refinancing rate. Currently, inflation is at 2.8%, remaining above the 2% target.
“That is way down from its autumn 2022 peak of 11.5%, although it also still above the central bank’s official 2% target and interest rate policy may now be more actively shaped by concerns over pedestrian growth in Germany, Europe’s economic engine, where GDP has shrunk four times in the last seven quarters, and a sequence of pedestrian growth reports from France and Italy, the second and third biggest economics in the bloc,” the AJ Bell team said.
For the rest of the year, economists are forecasting cuts to 3.5%, with a one-quarter point reduction at each remaining meeting. By June 2025, they are pencilling in an interest rate of 3%, and 2.5% by June 2026.
Friday 13 September
- EU industrial production
