Monday 13 January
- Trading statements from PageGroup and Oxford Nanopore
- US Federal budget balance
Tuesday 14 January
- Full-year results from Ramsdens
- First-half results from Games Workshop and Knights Group
- Trading statements from JD Sports, Persimmon, Robert Walters, Hunting and MJ Gleeson
- German ZEW economic sentiment index
- US NFIB smaller companies survey
- US producer price inflation
- In the EU, quarterly results from Suedzucker
- Ocado Christmas trading update
Ocado will provide its Christmas trading update on Tuesday as shares sit at a near six-year low.
The update will focus on its joint venture with M&S as a food delivery business. M&S provided its Christmas trading update last week. However, in a long-term view, Ocado is attempting to shift it’s attention towards its “smart platform”, transitioning to a software-driven company.
Russ Mould, AJ Bell investment director, Danni Hewson, AJ Bell head of financial analysis, and Dan Coatsworth, AJ Bell investment analyst, said: “Even that ambition has suffered setbacks of late, as US grocer Kroger has paused its Ocado-powered warehouse roll-out and Canada’s Sobeys has done the same, while at the same time relinquishing its rights to an exclusive technology partnership.
“In the UK, long-time partner Morrisons is to focus on using one, rather than two, so-called customer fulfilment centres (CFCs).”
In the third quarter trading update, customers had risen 10% year-on-year to 1.1m, with average orders per week up 15%. For the company as a whole, analysts anticipate a yearly revenue of over £3.1bn. Ocado has forecasted a profit margin of 2.5%.
“However, that still means the whole company remains loss-making and analysts do not foresee profits until at least 2027, using statutory measures,” the AJ Bell team said.
“Much therefore still depends on the technology licensing arm, as well as how the food delivery partnership continues to develop, amid ongoing reports of friction with M&S.”
Wednesday 15 January
- Trading updates from Rio Tinto, Experian, Vistry, Hays and Xaar
- UK inflation
- EU industrial production
- US inflation
- Federal Reserve Beige Book
- US oil inventories
- In the US, quarterly results from JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Citigroup, Bank of New York Mellon and HB Fuller
Thursday 16 January
- Full-year results from Safestore
- Trading statements from Antofagasta, Taylor Wimpey, Harbour Energy, Deliveroo and Trustpilot
- Chinese 1- and 5-year interest rates
- UK GDP growth
- UK manufacturing, construction and industrial output
- US retail sales
- US NAHB housebuilding industry survey
- US weekly initial unemployment claims
- In Asia, monthly sales update from TSMC and quarterly results from Infosys
- In Europe, a trading update from Richemont
- In the US, quarterly results from UnitedHealth, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, US Bancorp, M&T Bank, Birkenstock and Bank OZK
- Dunelm Christmas trading update
Dunelm will reveal its Christmas trading update on Thursday after a year of relatively flat share prices.
While earnings forecasts fell slightly across the past two years, the first quarter of 2025 showed sales growth of 3.5% year on year. Dunelm has forecasted a gross margin between 51% and 52% for the fiscal year, leading analysts to expect that pre-tax profit will be up 4%.
“Next has already quantified the cost of increases in the national living wage and national insurance contributions and analysts will look to other retailers to do the same. Dunelm has around 12,000 employees, of whom 7,500 are full-time. Staff costs represent around two-fifths of total operating expenses at Dunelm, according to 2024’s annual report and accounts, and thus come to 16% of group sales,” Mould, Coatsworth, and Hewson said.
“Dunelm is likely to seek cost savings (and possibly price increases) to offset the increase in expenses and analysts will seek an update on this, as well as November’s acquisition of Irish soft furnishings retailer Home Focus and the trials of smaller-format stores in London.”
Friday 17 January
- Trading updates from DFS Furniture and Petershill Partners
- In Asia, quarterly results from Wipro
- Chinese Q4 GDP growth
- Chinese fixed asset investment, retail sales and industrial production growth
- EU inflation
- US building permits
- US new housing starts
- US industrial production and capacity utilisation rate
- In the US, quarterly results from Schlumberger, Fastenal and Citizens Financial