Monday 13 November
- First-half results from British Land
- Trading statement from BAE Systems
- Rightmove UK house price index
- In Asia, quarterly results from Samsonite
- In the US, quarterly results from Tyson Foods
Tuesday 14 November
- First-half results from DCC, Land Securities, Babcock International, Oxford Instruments and CakeBox
- Trading statements from ConvaTec, Informa, Hill & Smith, Grafton and Vesuvius
- UK unemployment, wage growth and job vacancies
- German ZEW economic sentiment survey
- US NFIB smaller companies survey
- US consumer price inflation figures
- In Japan, quarterly results from Toshiba and Dentsu
- In Asia, quarterly results from LG, Hon Hai Precision, Sea and Tencent
- In Europe, quarterly results from SeaDrill, RWE and Siemens Energy
- In the US, quarterly results from Home Depot, Nu and Tencent Music
- Vodafone first-half results
Vodafone will produce its first-half results on Tuesday, following a period where shares have dropped a quarter in the past year.
In October 2022, share prices hit around 75p, a rate similar to 1997 before the technology and media boom. Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, and Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, said end of year results in May also failed to provide stability.
“May’s full-year results did not help sentiment much, even though chief executive Margherita Della Valle launched her ‘Customers, Simplicity and Growth’ strategy, and that was because the boss cut profit and cash flow forecasts for the year to March 2024 and forecast yet another year of unchanged dividends,” Mould and Hewson said.
This fiscal year’s first quarter update in July also showed difficulty, with sales growth dropping 4.8%. Underlying service revenue, however, rose 3.7%. Analysts will look at figures including group-wide organic sales growth and regional trends as the half-year report is released.
“Vodafone is still finding the going tough in its four largest markets, with only the UK offering any real joy,” Mould and Hewson said.
Vodafone’s benchmarks, which were downgraded in May, will include its underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortisation, and lease expenses, which comes in lower than a year ago, at €13.3bn from €14.7bn. It will also have a lower adjusted free cash flow, which will come in at €3.3bn before spectrum costs to fiscal 2023’s €5.5bn.
“Back in May, Della Valle flagged Turkey, Portugal, Ireland, the Czech Republic, South Africa and Greece as areas that were doing well and the UK, Germany, Spain and Italy as ones that were not,” Mould and Hewson said.
“Unfortunately, that meant the smaller operations were doing better than the larger ones. Spain is now to be sold, for up to €5 billion in cash, to an AIM-quoted cash shell and rumours of a merger with Three in the UK refuse to go away, while activity in other markets is also possible.”
Wednesday 15 November
- First-half results from SSE, Experian and Fuller, Smith & Turner
- Trading statements from Tullow Oil
- Analysts’ meeting at Diageo
- UK inflation figures
- Chinese retail sales, industrial production and tangible fixed asset investment growth
- EU industrial production
- US producer price (factory gate) inflation data
- US oil inventories
- In Europe, quarterly results from Alstom
- In the US, quarterly results from Target, Cisco, Tower Semiconductor and Kulicke & Soffa
- October US retail results
October US retail sales results will be made available on Wednesday. So far this year, the US economy has proved resilient amid fears of a recession.
“One of the biggest surprises of the year has been the strength of the American economy,” Mould and Hewson said.
“At this time last year, equity markets were fearing a recession, but such concerns have proven misplaced and one of the reasons is that US GDP growth was 4.9% on an annualised basis in the third quarter after inflation.”
The US has seen an uptick in personal consumption, corporate investment, and government spending, with only trade sitting in the negative with imports overtaking exports.
“In many ways, the consumer is key, because personal consumption represents about two-thirds of US GDP, and in the coming week all eyes will therefore be on the latest monthly US retail sales figures,” Mould and Hewson said.
Retail sales growth rose to 3.8% year on year in September, although some analysts will have their eyes on personal savings rates to determine if this growth is sustainable. As of September, personal savings rates hovered below 5%.
Thursday 16 November
- First-half results from United Utilities, Burberry, Halma, QinetiQ, Premier Foods and Norcros
- Trading statements from Aviva, Smiths Group, Spirax-Sarco Engineering, Melrose, Close Brothers, Keller, Crest Nicholson and Kier
- US industrial production
- US NAHB housebuilding industry survey
- US weekly initial unemployment claims
- In Asia, quarterly results from Lenovo
- In Europe, quarterly results from Siemens, Aegon, Subsea7 and Vallourec
- In the US, quarterly results from Wal-Mart, Warner Music, Applied Materials, Manchester United, Dolby Laboratories and Macy’s
Friday 17 November
- First-half results from Marks Electrical
- UK GfK consumer confidence survey
- EU inflation
- US housing permits
- US housing starts
