Monday 21 February
- – Full-year results from Dechra Pharmaceuticals, Go-Ahead Group and Finsbury Food
- – Flash manufacturing purchasing managers’ indices (PMIs) in Asia, Europe and UK
- – Rightmove UK house price index
- – In the US, quarterly results from Berkshire Hathaway
Tuesday 22 February
- – Full-year results from HSBC, Antofagasta, InterContinental Hotels, Smith & Nephew and Coca-Cola HBC
- – UK Government borrowing figures
- – Belgian Courbe Syntéthique economic survey
- – US flash manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI)
- – In Africa, quarterly results from AngloGold Ashanti
- – In Europe, quarterly results from Fresenius and Endesa
- – In the US, quarterly results from Home Depot, Caesar’s Entertainment and Macy’s
Wednesday 23 February
- – Full-year results from Barclays, Rio Tinto and Aston Martin Lagonda
- – First-half results from Clinigen and UNITE
- – Trading statement from Ted Baker
- – Monetary policy decision from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand
- – German Ifo economic survey
- – EU inflation figures
- – In Europe, quarterly results from Rosneft, Danone, Stellantis, Uniper and Puma
- – In the US, quarterly results from HP, eBay and Hertz
Barclays full-year results mark the debut of chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan, who took over on 1 November “after Jes Staley’s fall from grace”, said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould and financial analyst Danni Hewson.
“No doubt Barclays will be looking to put its (bad) habit of firing (or losing) chief executives behind it when it reports its 2021 results.
“At least the share price seems relatively undisturbed, as it is higher now than on the day of Mr Staley’s sudden departure and is up by some 40% year-on-year,” Mould and Hewson said.
They attribute the improvement to the UK’s economic recovery, which has helped Barclays write-back some of the loan losses it took in 2020 and boosted earnings and rising interest rates, which are beneficial for banks’ profit margins. On top of this, strong levels of IPO and M&A activity should help Barclays’ investment bank cash in.
“As a result of these trends, analysts are looking for a 2021 full-year pre-tax profit of £8.1bn. That compares to 2020’s £3.1bn and would outstrip the pre-financial crisis peak of £7.1bn achieved in 2006,” Mould and Hewson said.
“It also implies a profit for the fourth quarter alone of just under £1.2bn, the lowest quarter of the year, although that is relatively normal for banks as they tend to clean up and clear out their books in the final three-month period. Even then it represents a big step up on 2020’s fourth-quarter result of £646m.”
Thursday 24 February
- – Full-year results from BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, WPP, Lloyds, Grafton, Metro Bank, Centrica, Derwent London and Howden Joinery
- – First-half results from Hays
- – US Q4 GDP growth
- – US new homes sales
- – US oil inventories data
- – In Asia, quarterly results from APAC Budweiser Brewing and Hong Kong Exchanges, Baidu and Singapore Airlines
- – In Europe, quarterly results from AB InBev, Deutsche Telekom, Daimler and Moncler
- – In the US, quarterly results from Moderna, VMWare, Newmont Mining, Dell, Hormel Foods and Norwegian Cruise Line
Friday 25 February
- – Full-year results from Rightmove, International Consolidated Airlines, Evraz and Pearson
- – Trading statement from Babcock
- – Japanese inflation figures
- – German and French GDP figures
- – US Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) price index
- – US durable goods orders
- – In Europe, quarterly results from BASF
- – In the US, quarterly results from Liberty Broadband and Formula1
