Monday 22 July
- First-half results from MONY and Ascential
- In Europe, quarterly results from SAP and Ryanair
- In the US, quarterly results from Verizon Communications and NXP Semiconductor
Tuesday 23 July
- First-half results from SThree
- Trading updates from Compass and Mitie
- EU consumer confidence
- US existing homes sales
- In Asia, quarterly results from SK Hynix
- In Europe, quarterly results from LVMH, ASM International, Thales, Lindt, Alfa Laval, Logitech, Norsk Hydro, Banco Sabadell, Akzo Nobel and Randstad
- In the US, quarterly results from Microsoft, Alphabet, Tesla, Visa, Coca-Cola, Texas Instruments, GE Aerospace, Danaher, Philip Morris, Comcast, Lockheed Martin, Mondelez, Freeport-McMoRan Copper, Spotify, 3M, General Motors and Mattel
- Tesla second quarter results
Tesla will release its results for the second quarter on Tuesday, following a 33% share price increase despite the first quarter producing the lowest profits since 2021.
The second quarter production and delivery data showed a 14% year-on-year decrease in car production and 5% fall in unit sales.
Dan Coatsworth, AJ Bell investment analyst, and Danni Hewson, AJ Bell head of financial analysis, said: “Quite what inspired this romp [in share price] is hard to divine, barring ongoing investor enthusiasm for companies that are perceived as AI [and autonomous driving] plays, Elon Musk’s courtroom victories at Tesla and X and ongoing hopes surrounding the Cybertruck, the supercharger network and the ride-hailing app.”
Earnings per share are expected to bounce back from their Q1 slump of $0.37 to $0.62 for the second quarter. Analysts will also look to cash flow, which was at its lowest since Q1 2020 in the first quarter of 2024.
“Tesla carries a net cash pile of $21.5bn so a quarter or two of weak cash flow is not of undue concern, although shareholders will look for improvement here, not least as it would signify both higher profits and also a cleaner balance sheet through the reduction of inventory,” Coatsworth and Hewson said.
Wednesday 24 July
- First-half results from Reckitt Benckiser, UNITE, RHI Magnesita, Breedon Aggregates, Aston Martin Lagonda and Primary Health Properties
- Trading updates from Fresnillo, EasyJet and Oxford Nanopore
- Flash purchasing managers’ indices (PMIs) for manufacturing from Japan, Asia, Europe, the UK and USA
- Interest rate decision from the Bank of Canada
- US news homes sales
- US oil inventories
- In Europe, quarterly results from Iberdrola, BNP Paribas, Equinor, Banco Santander, UniCredit, Kering, Deutsche Boerse, Orange, Michelin, Repsol, SGS, Moncler, Jeronimo Martins, Stora Enso, Carrefour, SSAB and Kindred
- In the US, quarterly results from Qualcomm, IBM, LAM Research, AT&T, UPS, KLA-Tencor, Ford, Newmont, United Rentals and International Paper
Thursday 25 July
- First-half results from RELX, British American Tobacco, Lloyds, Anglo American, Rentokil Initial, Informa, Centrica, Centamin, Howden Joinery, Airtel Africa, ITV and Hammerson
- Quarterly results and trading updates from Vodafone, BT, Britvic, Workspace and CVS Group
- US Q2 GDP growth
- US durable goods orders
- US weekly initial unemployment claims
- In Japan, quarterly results from Nissan Motors
- In Europe, quarterly results from Nestlé, Hermes, Roche, Christian Dior, Sanofi, EssilorLuxxotica, Stellantis, EDF, ENI, St. Gobain, STMicroelectronics, Renault, BESI, TotalEnergies, Vivendi, Accor, Aixtron and Valeo
- In the US, quarterly results from Amazon, Mastercard, AbbVie, Linde, Honeywell, Intel, Starbucks, Northrop Grumman, Keurig-Dr Pepper, Royal Caribbean, Baker Hughes, Southwest Airlines, Baxter, Skyworks, US Steel, Liberty Global and Harley-Davidson
Friday 26 July
- First-half results from SEGRO, IMI, Rightmove and Drax
- US Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) index
- In Japan, quarterly results from NEC and Komatsu
- In Europe, quarterly results from Air Liquide, Mercedez Benz, Holcim, BASF, CapGemini, SCA, Alstom, Vallourec and Kone Cranes
- In the US, quarterly results from ExxonMobil, Bristol Meyers Squibb, ConocoPhillips and AON
The ‘Big Five’ lenders will begin rolling out results this week, with Lloyds reporting on Thursday and NatWest on Friday, with Standard Chartered, HSBC, and Barclays the following week.
The banking sector as a whole has shown growth in the last year, with the FTSE 350 banks index increasing by a fifth. Barclays has grown its share price by over 45% in the past year, with NatWest nearing 40%. Lloyds is also up 35%, but HSBC and Standard Chartered have lagged behind with increases near or below 10%.
“Within the quintet, Barclays is the best performer over the past 12 months and the three lenders with the greatest exposure to the UK have easily outperformed those where emerging markets and Asia are a greater focus,” The AJ Bell duo said.
“Perhaps this reflects how the UK is emerging from recession, as well as hope for interest rate cuts, in contrast to the ongoing lack of clarity concerning the economic trajectory of China and Hong Kong, with the former in particular trying to manage a spectacular commercial real estate bust.”
However pre-tax profit projections have made analysts wary. NatWest is expected to drop pre-tax profits by a sixth from 2023 for 2024, to £5.1bn. For the second quarter, pre-tax profit is expected to hit £1.3bn, a drop from 2023 Q2’s £1.8bn.
“Finally, attention will switch to cash returns. NatWest bought back £1.2bn worth of shares from the government in the second quarter, and analysts are looking for a first-half dividend of 5.3p a share,” Hewson and Coatsworth said.
“For the whole year, consensus is looking for £1.4bn in buybacks and an unchanged total dividend of 17.7p – their combined value would be around £2.8bn if those forecasts are correct, or nearly 11% of the bank’s current stock market capitalisation.”
