Monday 8 April
- Trading update from Ferrexpo
- Japanese wage growth
- German industrial production
- In Asia, monthly sales figures from Taiwanese silicon chip foundry UMC
Tuesday 9 April
- Full-year results from S & U and Animalcare
- Trading update from UNITE
- British Retail Consortium monthly UK retail sales
- US NFIB smaller companies business survey
- Imperial Brands first-half trading update
Imperial Brands will share its first-half trading update on Tuesday, with shares falling by near 10% in the past year.
The drop in share price follows an international pressure on tobacco packaging and advertising, with both the UK and New Zealand entertaining tobacco brands with an age threshold.
Russ Mould, AJ Bell investment director, Danni Hewson, AJ Bell head of financial analysis, and Dan Coatsworth, AJ Bell investment analyst, said: “Tobacco firms push back on such initiatives, first by pointing out how outright bans could simply prompt illicit trade on black markets (where no excise duty can be collected), and second by jacking up prices on their products to compensate for falling volumes.”
For the fiscal 2024, the company has projected low single-digit sales growth and mid-single digit growth in operating profit. This would mean a group adjusted operating profit of £4bn for the full year and 2% growth in net revenues.
“Pricing power is always valuable, but it is all the more so when inflation is running strongly and firms face margin pressure from rising input costs. Pricing power protects lofty profit margins, lofty profit margins support cash flow and cash flow funds dividends,” the AJ Bell team said.
“Mr Bomhard and colleagues will doubtless leave comment on the interim dividend until the first-half results in May, but analysts do expect Imperial to increase its pay-out to 155p a share, from 146.82p a share in fiscal 2023.”
Imperial has consistently increased dividends since 2020 and is also running a £1.1bn buyback.
Wednesday 10 April
- Full-year results from Futura Medical and M&C Saatchi
- US inflation
- US oil inventories
- In Asia, monthly sales figures from Taiwanese silicon chip foundry TSMC
- In Asia, quarterly results from NanYa Technology
- In Europe, quarterly results from Barry Callebaut
- In the US, quarterly results from Delta Airlines
Thursday 11 April
- Full-year results from Mears
- Trading statement from Norcros
- Chinese consumer price inflation
- Germany wholesale price inflation
- US producer price inflation
- US weekly initial unemployment claims
- In Japan, quarterly results from Fast Retailing
- In the US, quarterly results from Constellation Brands, Fastenal and CarMax
- European Central Bank interest rate decision
The European Central Bank will meet to discuss interest rates on 11 April, as the bank attempts to balance rates with an inflation target of 2%.
The Bank of England will not have its next meeting until 9 May, while the Fed will hold its meeting on 1 May.
“In many quarters the first reductions were expected in 2023, but that was in response to a recession which did not arrive, at least on time, and sticky inflation has forced economists and investors alike to reconsider,” Mould, Hewson, and Coatsworth said.
“Back in January, both the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England were seen cutting by five to six times in 2024, with the first move in March, but March has come and gone, and the American and British monetary authorities are now expecting to cut three times at the most this year.”
Currently, the ECB’s main refinancing rate is at 4.5%, a 22-year high which has been in place since September. The last inflation reading came in above expectations, at 2.6%.
Friday 12 April
- Full-year results from Serica Energy and Everyman Media
- UK monthly GDP growth
- UK construction, manufacturing and industrial output
- In the US, quarterly results from JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and BlackRock
