Source: Sharecast
On Monday, full-year results are due from Kainos and Big Yellow, while the latest house price index form Rightmove will also be published. On the macro front, a raft of Chinese data is due, with fixed asset investment, industrial production and retail sales figures for April all scheduled for release.
On Tuesday, investors will eye full-year results from food producer Cranswick, Bulmers owner C&C and DCC, half-year results from Diploma and SSP, and a full-year trading update from electricals retailer Currys.
In the US, first-quarter earnings from Home Depot will be in focus. The latest UK unemployment and average earnings figures will also be eyed.
Wednesday will bring full-year results from food, clothing and homeware retailer Marks & Spencer, credit-checking firm Experian, British Land, Severn Trent and RS Group.
Trading updates from Coats Group and Keller, a trading statement and operational update from Energean and interim results from Transact owner IntegraFin are also due, along with first-quarter results from US retailer Target and chip maker Nvidia.
On the macroeconomic front, UK inflation data for April will be in the spotlight.
Aarin Chiekrie, equity analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown, said Marks & Spencer’s food business looks to have enjoyed strong momentum in the run-up to the end of the calendar year.
"Since then, industry data shows that its grocery sales were up 7.0% in the 12 weeks to 22 February, which is almost twice as fast as the broader market, albeit from a relatively small base compared to peers," he said. "Meanwhile, its half-owned venture, Ocado Retail, remained the fastest-growing retailer in the market, with sales growing 15.1% thanks to strong customer growth.
"Elsewhere in the business, the group had been expecting operations in its Fashion, Home & Beauty business to return to normal by March 2026, following a cyberattack the prior year. Investors are keen to hear whether that timetable’s been stuck to, and how much of a financial impact it's had. Markets are currently expecting full-year operating profits to fall around 23% to £755mn."
As far as Nvidia is concerned, AJ Bell analysts Russ Mould and Danni Hewson said "another ‘beat and raise’ is a must for AI’s posterchild with the shares trading at all-time highs amid unprecedented demand for its GPUs".
The results will follow a report this week suggesting the US has cleared about 10 Chinese companies to buy Nvidia’s H200 artificial intelligence chips, although no deliveries have yet been made as the deal remains caught between Washington’s export controls and Beijing’s efforts to reduce reliance on foreign technology.
According to Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter, the US Commerce Department has approved companies including Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance and JD.com to purchase Nvidia’s H200 chips, the company’s second-most powerful AI processor.
Thursday will be busier still on the corporate side of things, with full-year results from BT, Great Portland Estates, Autotrader, LondonMetric, Qinetiq and ICG.
Full-year results from Tate & Lyle are also scheduled for release, after the company confirmed this week that it is in talks with US rival Ingredion about a possible £2.7bn takeover. Under the proposal - which followed a number of earlier approaches from Ingredion - shareholders would get 615p per share. This includes 595p per share in cash and the right to receive a final dividend of up to 13p per share and an interim dividend of up to 7p.
Interim results from AJ Bell, easyJet and Sage Group are also on the docket, as well as trading updates from Convatec, Close Brothers, Smiths and Ibstock, and first-quarter results from Walmart in the US.
HL’s Chiekrie said easyJet has already braced investors that next week’s first-half results would see underlying pre-tax losses widen to between £540m and £560m. "This comes as higher fuel costs in the wake of the Middle East crisis were already weighing on profitability, and the impact was much worse than markets were expecting at the time," he said.
"With that news already digested by markets, the outlook for the second half is what analysts will be focusing most on. As of mid-April, bookings for the second half were only two percentage points below last year’s level. But with everyday cost pressures already rising for consumers, expect the demand picture to have deteriorated. And with energy markets likely to be disrupted for the foreseeable future, investors are mindful of the outlook for fuel prices in the second half."
There are no UK FTSE 350 corporate releases due on Friday.