Monday 20 July
– Trading statement from BHP Group
– In Europe, quarterly results from Philips
– In the US, quarterly results from IBM and oil services group Halliburton
Tuesday 21 July
– Trading statement from Talk Talk Telecom
– UK government public sector cash requirement – the latest deficit figures
– In Europe, quarterly results from Novartis, UBS, SKF, SGS and Valeo
– In the US, quarterly results from Coca-Cola, Texas Instruments, Philip Morris and airline United Continental
Wednesday 22 July
– US oil inventories
AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said the latest weekly figures released by the Energy Information Administration showed US oil stocks at 539 million barrels, excluding the strategic petroleum reserve.
He added: “That was up 18% year-on-year to pretty much an all-time high, which may be one reason why crude oil is not making too much more progress after its initial recovery from the spring lows, a trend which continues to weigh on the share prices of the oil majors, BP and Shell, and the wider UK oil & gas producers sector.”
– Japanese inflation data
– In Europe, quarterly results from ABB
– In the US, quarterly results from Tesla, Boeing, CSX, Las Vegas Sands, Chipotle and Baker Hughes
Thursday 23 July
– US initial jobless claims
Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management investment manager Sam Buckingham said the weekly US initial jobless claims figure continues to subside from its peak of 6.9 million in March but is still at a “damagingly high” level.
“The unemployment rate in the US has shot up to 13%. There are some signs of a stabilising labour market, and the optimistic among us will hope to see a V-shaped recovery with employment rebounding to pre-pandemic levels. However, this does seem unlikely.”
– Unilever first-half results
Mould said despite the relative defensive nature of its business, Unilever’s shares are down year-on-year which is partly due to a weak finish to 2019.
“Back in December the company dished out a mild profit warning, noting that sales for the year would come in below guidance,” he added. “Underlying revenues ultimately rose 2.9% year-on-year, below the company’s long-term target range of 3% to 5% a year. Trading was therefore already getting tough – and then came the pandemic.”
– First-half results from Croda, Relx and Howden Joinery
On Relx, the Share Centre said: “Investors will be expecting an update on its exhibition business which has been hit hard by the Covid-19 crisis; however its other three divisions may have fared better. The group’s priority is the organic development of increasingly sophisticated information based analytics and decision tools for its customers.”
– Trading statement from Sage
– In Japan, quarterly results from Nissan Motor and Canon
– In Europe, quarterly results from Roche, Daimler, STMicroelectronics and Repsol
– In the US, quarterly results from Amazon, Alphabet, Visa, Intel, AT&T, Newmont Mining, Spotify, Twitter and Hershey.
Friday 24 July
– UK retail sales
Buckingham said these figures will offer a glimpse of how the gradual easing of lockdown has impacted consumer spending habits. He noted the unemployment report for May, published on 16 July, indicated a stronger-than-expected labour market, including the unemployment rate remaining at 3.9%, despite forecasts for 4.2%.
“This unexpected strength should only help retail sales,” he added. “The British Retail Consortium has already released its data for June’s retail sales, which indicates a continued strong rebound by British shoppers, as sales grew 3.4% in June compared with the same month last year. As expected, e-commerce was the driver, with growth for online non-food items of 48.2%.”
– UK purchasing manager indices (PMIs)
Buckingham said this print out will give the preliminary PMIs for July in the services and manufacturing sectors.
“Both sectors’ declines have dissipated somewhat, with the manufacturing sector even rebounding into growth, indicated by June’s PMI reading of 50.1, marginally above the crucial 50 barrier,” he said. “At the time of writing, Bloomberg does not have a consensus of forecasts for the July preliminary reading, however as lockdown has gradually eased over the past month, we would expect further improvements in both industries’ readings.”
– Vodafone first-quarter update
Mould said despite the potential benefit of the roll-out of 5G technology, Vodafone’s shares continue to languish, weighed down by debt, concerns over whether the €18.4bn purchase of Liberty Global’s European cable assets was the right thing to do and the possible costs of acquiring 5G spectrum and equipment.
“Shareholders are now also trying to work out whether Vodafone’s business could benefit from Covid-19 or not, either as consumers downloaded more data and media during lockdown or workers remain at home rather than in the office,” he added.
– First-half results from Centrica
– Ifo Business Climate index in Germany
– Belgian Courbe Synthetique business confidence indicator
– US new housing sales data
– In Europe, quarterly results from Swiss lift maker Schindler
– In the US, quarterly results from Verizon Communications, Chevron, American Express, Schlumberger and American Airlines
