Subscribe to Hemscott News RSS Feed Share Hemscott News via the Web

The excitement of last week’s quantitative easing expansion leads into this week’s quarterly inflation report, at which the Bank of England is expected to provide further insight into the Monetary Policy Committee’s decision to add an extra £25 billion to its bond purchase programme, bringing the total amount to £200 billion. International markets’ reactions to the news last week was muted, though the smaller-than-predicted additional injection implies the Bank is beginning to wind down its programme.

The quarterly inflation report will be released on Wednesday, which, being November 11th, is also Remembrance Day in the UK. Prior to this announcement, investors will be looking across the North Sea to Germany, where September’s trade balance is expected show an increase from the previous month’s EUR 8.1 billion to around EUR 11.0 billion, while the current account of the nation that has already showed itself to have climbed out of recession is expected to rise to around EUR 9.0 billion in September.

The UK will unveil its own trade balance data on Tuesday. The visible trade balance reading is seen coming in at a deficit of just over £6.0 billion in September—a slight narrowing of the gap compared to August’s £6.2 billion. Conversely, the UK’s trade deficit is expected to have widened in September once trade with the European Union is excluded from the calculations, extending to £3.1 billion.

Wednesday is when all eyes will be on the Bank of England’s inflation report, but in addition to this will be the release of UK unemployment date. The claimant count measure is forecast to show the proportion of British out of work rising to 5.1% in October, while the ILO measure is seen at 8.0%. The latter reading excludes people who receive benefits but are not actively seeking employment.

Moving onto Thursday, the US will announce its latest weekly jobless claims but, coming on the back of last week’s key monthly labour report, this is expected to be something of a non-event as investors continue to digest last Friday’s news.

The final day of the week will provide some more trade balance figures—this time from the US, where the trade gap is seen growing to $31.9 billion in September from the previous month’s $30.7 billion.

On the corporate front, among those UK-listed companies reporting results will be three stocks that have recently benefited from investor fear of a market correction. Tobacco products manufacturer Imperial Tobacco, supermarkets group Sainsbury and utility provider Scottish & Southern Energy. Outside the defensives arena, Barclays will report its much-awaited third quarter update on Tuesday, which will mark the start of the bank’s new quarterly dividend policy. As such, the group is expected to announce a third quarter dividend, though little guidance has been given ahead of the event.

Imperial’s full-year results, due on Tuesday, may well show a slight decline in underlying volumes due to the challenging economic conditions but this is expected to be more than offset by the company’s ability to raise prices.

Sainsbury’s interim results, due on Wednesday, will switch the focus back to the firm’s operating performance after recent speculation surrounding a potential takeover bid from Qatari stakeholder the Qatar Investment authority. Analysts at Charles Stanley expect Sainsbury to report a small expansion in operating margin to 3.2%, in addition to an update on new space.

For Scottish & Southern, which will also be unveiling first-half numbers on Wednesday, the group is expected to report numbers in line with management’s full-year guidance for a moderate rise in adjusted pretax profit.

Among those stocks trading ex dividend rights on Wednesday will be BP, Marks & Spencer, Home Retail Group, Invensys and Dechra Pharmaceuticals. The largest company to go ex-dividend this week is FTSE 100 heavyweight BP, with a third quarter dividend of 14 US cents, which converts to 8.5p per share, yielding 1.5%.

Contact our editorial team

Financial Information for