Monday 26 April
-In Europe, German IFO business sentiment survey and Courbe Synthetique Belgian business sentiment survey
– In the UK, United Oil & Gas final results
-In the UK, Lok’n Store interim results
-In the UK, trading update from Pearson
-In Europe, quarterly results from Philips and Michelin
-In the US, quarterly results from Tesla and NXP Semiconductor
Tuesday 27 April
-BP quarterly results
Despite Europe Brent crude oil prices trebling over the past year, BP’s shares are almost unchanged.
The stagnant share price performance may “reflect investor scepticism that BP can juggle its cashflows to the point whereby it can maximise value from its current hydrocarbon assets, invest effectively in renewable and alternative energy sources and pay out healthy dividends”, according to AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
BP halved its dividend in the second quarter of last year, to 5.25 cents a quarter where it stayed fro the third and fourth quarters. Analysts don’t expect this to change, putting the stock on a yield of 5%.
-EU Business Climate Indicator and Industrial Confidence figures
-US Housing Starts and Consumer Confidence figures
-In the UK, Anexo Group, Gaming Realms, Inspiration Healthcare Group, Xaar and Whitbread final results
-In Europe, Nostrum Oil & Gas final results
-In Europe, quarterly results from Novartis, Atlas Copco, ABB and UBS
-In the UK, Vivo Energy, HSBC and AVEVA trading updates
-In the US, quarterly results from Microsoft, Alphabet, Visa, Texas Instruments, UPS, Starbucks, General Electric, AMD, Mondelez and Pinterest.
Wednesday 28 April
-US Federal Reserve monetary policy decision
No change in the Fed’s current policy is expected by economists who believe the headline interest rate will remain at 0.25% and its quantitative easing programme will continue to run at $120bn a month. The Fed’s current asset base is $7.8trn, a new record high and up by almost a quarter year-on-year.
AJ Bell financial analyst Danni Hewson said Fed chair Jerome Powell’s recent speeches indicate the Fed will not rest until the US is nearing maximum employment and inflation stands at its 2% target consistently, even tolerating some inflation overshoot.
-In the UK, full-year results from Sainsburys
-Trading statements from Lloyds, CRH, GlaxoSmithKline, Persimmon, Reckitt Benckiser, WPP and London Stock Exchange
-US oil inventory data
-In Japan, quarterly results from Sony
-In Asia, quarterly results from SKHynix, Hong Kong Exchange and UMC
-In Europe, quarterly results from Sanofi, Banco Santander, Delivery Hero, Carlsberg and Deutsche Bank
-In the US, quarterly results from Apple, Facebook, Qualcomm, Shopify, Boeing, Spotify, Ford and Yum! Brands
Thursday 29 April
-First-half results from WH Smith
-Trading updates from Shell, Unilever, Standard Chartered, Smith & Nephew, NatWest, Flutter, Glencore and DS Smith
-US Q1 GDP growth (first estimate)
-US weekly unemployment claims
-In Asia, quarterly results from Samsung Electronics, Kweichow Moutai and Baidu
-In Europe, quarterly results from Total, Airbus, BASF and STMicroelectronics
-In the US, quarterly results from Amazon, McDonald’s, Caterpillar, Altria, Nio, Newmont Mining, Twitter, KLA-Tencor and Kraft-Heinz
Friday 30 April
-Astrazeneca first-quarter results
Despite Astrazeneca’s role in the fight against Covid, its shares are unchanged over the past year and down by a fifth from their summer highs for a number of reasons.
Charging only cost price for each vaccine dose, difficulty in ramping up production volumes, and its $39bn cash-and-stock bid for Alexion are all causes for concern.
The pandemic slowed down product sales as admissions and trips to the doctor fell. However, the fourth quarter showed a return to a double-digit rate of advance and in its full-year results, chief executive Pascal Soriot indicated a low-teens percentage revenue growth in 2021.
Astrazeneca is forecast to be the ninth biggest dividend player in the FTSE 100 in cash terms in 2021 with a dividend yield of 2.6%.
-Trading statement from Barclays, Smurfit Kappa and Hikma Pharmaceuticals
-Flash purchasing managers indices (PMIs) from Asia, Europe, the UK and US
-Japanese inflation and unemployment figures
-Chinese purchasing managers’ indices (PMIs)
-European inflation figures
-US new homes sales
-In Asia, quarterly results from Alibaba
-In Europe, quarterly results from Swedish Match
-In the US, quarterly results from ExxonMobil, Chevron and Colgate-Palmolive
