Monday 18 October
-Trading update from miner BHP
-Chinese Q3 GDP growth
-Chinese retail sales, industrial production and tangible fixed asset investment growth data
-US industrial production and capacity utilisation
-US NAHB housebuilders’ sentiment survey
-In Europe, quarterly results from Philips and Sandvik
Tuesday 19 October
-Full-year results from housebuilder Bellway
-Trading update from gold miner Centamin
-EGM at Morrisons, where shareholders can vote on whether to accept CD&R’s 287p-a-share offer
-In Europe, quarterly results from Ericsson and Deutsche Boerse
-In the US, quarterly results from Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, Netflix, Philip Morris, Halliburton and Omnicom
Wednesday 20 October
-UK inflation data
AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould and financial analyst Danni Hewson said petrol prices, heating bills, shrinkflation and the availability of staple foodstuffs in supermarkets are all hot topics across the country and the latest official statistics will be important for consumers, investors and central bankers.
Last month’s CPI rise to 3.2% was the biggest jump since January 2012.
“The Bank of England has now suggested that inflation could top 4% by year end – well above its 2% target – and its new chief economist, Huw Pill has admitted that inflation could come in higher than expected for longer than expected,” they said.
“This rather punctures the narrative that the current burst of price rises would be temporary, or ‘transitory’, to use central-bank speak, and this batch of inflation figures could help to shape the Bank of England’s thinking on monetary policy at its next meeting. That is due on Thursday 4 November.”
-Trading updates from SEGRO, Antofagasta and Avast
-EU inflation figures
-US oil inventory data
-US Federal Reserve Beige Book
-In Europe, quarterly results from Nestlé, Roche, ASML and Yara International
-In the US, quarterly results from Verizon, Abbott Laboratories, IBM, Zoetis, LAM Research, CSX, United Rentals and Baker Hughes
Thursday 21 October
-Barclays Q3 results
Mould and Hewson noted that shares in Barclays have almost doubled in the past 12 months, easily outstripping the FTSE 100’s near-20% gain over the same period.
They said this could be down to a combination of the economic rebound this year, “perky” financial markets, a return to the dividend list and commencement of share buybacks, and the lowly valuation the bank was trading at last year.
The duo said analysts will likely look out for clues in four trends: loan growth relative to deposit growth, net interest margin, loan provisions, and the state of the investment bank.
-Unilever Q3 results
Unilever’s shares are down by more than a fifth over the past year, said Mould and Hewson, while the FTSE has advanced by a fifth. This, they added, could be down to investors searching for cyclical companies set to benefit from the recovery rather than “steady Eddies” like Unilever.
But the firm also saw a slowdown in sales growth in 2020, especially in emerging markets, while evidence of input cost inflation and margin pressure in the first half of 2021 have not helped either.
“The perception of tardy progress is stoking speculation that Unilever is ripe for the arrival of an activist investor on the share register.”
-Trading statements from Rentokil Initial, Anglo American, Spectris, Renishaw and cybersecurity expert GB Group
-UK government borrowing figures
-US existing homes sales data
-In Europe, quarterly results from L’Oreal, SAP, Hermes, Atlas Copco, ABB, Pernod Ricard, Volvo and Schindler
-In the US, quarterly results from PayPal, Intel, AT&T and Southwest Airlines
Friday 22 October
-UK consumer confidence
The AJ Bell duo said: “Inflation is effectively a tax, since it erodes the real-terms purchasing power of the money in consumers’ and corporations’ pocket, especially if wage growth does not match or beat the rate of price increases. Throw in the Government’s 1.25 percentage point social care levy – the equivalent of some £12bn– and panic at the pumps and it will be interesting to see if the post-pandemic recovery in consumer confidence is starting to peter out.”
-Trading statements from London Stock Exchange Group and InterContinental Hotels
-Flash purchasing managers’ indices for Japan, Asia, Europe, the UK and US
-In Europe, quarterly results from Air Liquide and Renault
-In the US, quarterly results from American Express, Schlumberger and Royal Caribbean
