Friday preview: US corporate news in focus
19-04-2018 19:35
(WebFG News) - Barring surprises, the economic calendar was looking rather sparse at the end of the week, with no economic releases scheduled in the UK and just one lone Fed speaker set to take to the podium on Friday, Chicago Fed chief Charles Evans, at 1710 BST.
Against that backdrop, the focus would again be on the flow of corporate results in the States, with multiple medium-sized lenders set to publish their latest quarterly figures, including State Street, SunTrust Banks and Citizens Financial.
Results were also expected from General Electric and Honeywell.
Overnight however, investors would be waiting on Japanese core consumer price data and services sector activity for March and February, respectively.
Across the Channel, the key releases would be readings on Belgian and euro area consumer confidence at 1400 BST and 1500 BST, respectively, with the latter possibly impacting markets in case of a sufficiently large surprise.
Back in the UK, the focus would be on a trading update out of Reckitt Benckiser, alongside finals from Velocys.
Regarding the latter, analysts at Numis expected the biofuels refiner to report $1.2m of sales for its most recently-concluded financial year, with cash on hand at year-end seen at £2.6m, although post period-end it was augmented by $17.1m via a cash call.
Although it might still be too early in the year, according to analyst James Hubbard the main things he would be looking for were updates from management on full FEED award for the Mississippi biorefinery, progress on its integrated demonstration project and any information regarding the search for strategic investors for the Mississippi biorefinery.
Friday April 20
INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Bioventix, Craneware, Go-Ahead Group, Origin Enterprises
QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE
XP Power Ltd. (DI)
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Producer Price Index (GER) (07:00)
IMSS
Reckitt Benckiser Group
SPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Somero Enterprises Inc. (DI)
AGMS
Bank of Ireland (Governor & Company Of The) Non-Cum Prf 'A' Liquidation, Bank of Ireland Group , Byblos Bank SAL GDR (Reg S), HSBC Holdings, PAO Novatek GDR (Reg S)
TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Record
FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Chemring Group, Heavitree Brewery, Heavitree Brewery 'A' Shares, IDOX, Somero Enterprises Inc. (DI), XLMedia
