Friday preview: US August jobs report, Ashmore in the spotlight
All eyes on Friday will be on the US jobs report for August, with investors keen to assess the health of the American jobs market, which has underpinned solid consumption growth thus far.
Following a stronger-than-expected print on consultancy ADP's private sector payrolls report published on Thursday, odds are that consensus will not be dealt a nasty surprise, Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics said.
Shepherdson was looking for 180,000 new non-farm payrolls (consensus: 165,000).
But with potential implications for the Federal Reserve's policy-making, Shepherdson added a big caveat, telling clients: "By the same token, significantly weaker numbers over the next few months also are more likely than not."
Capital Economics's Paul Ashworth on the other hand was looking for US jobs growth to slow to a 110,000 pace in August.
Consensus forecasts were for the year-on-year rate of increase in average hourly earnings to dip from 3.2% for July to 3.0% in August, although the length of the average work week was seen rising from 34.3 hours to 34.4.
In the UK, the only data due out were the Recruitment and Employment Confederation's staff placement and salaries indices covering for last month.
And in the euro area, the spotlight will be on July data for German industrial production.
Among the corporates set to update investors at the end of the week is Ashmore Group.
For the fund manager's full-year numbers, UBS's Michael Werner is anticipating an 11.0% year-on-year increase in net revenues, at constant currencies, of £306.0m or 1.0% below the consensus due to lower-than-expected management fees.
Management fees were nonetheless pegged at up by 19.0% on the year thanks to higher management fees on the back of the strong inflows seen over the period, but performance fees were seen falling by 82.0%.
On an adjusted basis meanwhile, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation were expected to climb by 15.0% on the year and reach £211.0m, for a 10.0% jump in earnings per share to 23.4p.
Ashmore's full-year dividend per share was seen at 16.7p or flat versus the 2018 financial year.
Its chief executive officer could also announce a stake sale of under four per cent as part of his plans to cut his holdings from 39.0% to under 30.0% in coming years, Werner said.
Friday, 5 September
FINALS
Ashmore Group
INTERIMS
SIG, International Public Partnerships Ltd.
TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Berkeley Group Holdings (The)
AGMs
Berkeley Group Holdings (The), Greene King
GMs
Cellcast
FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
New Century AIM VCT, Redcentric, Cranswick, U And I Group, Cmc Markets, Fuller Smith & Turner, Entertainment One Limited, Monks Inv Trust
INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Direct Line Insurance Group, Residential Secure Income, Avon Rubber, McColl's Retail Group, FEVERTREE DRINKS, Lancashire Holdings Limited, Zegona Communications, Premier Asset Management Group, Law Debenture Corp., Spirent Communications, Tyman, Fresnillo, EJF Investments Ltd NPV
SPECAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Artemis VCT, New Century AIM VCT
QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE
Contour global, ICG Enterprise Trust, Real Estate Credit Investments Ltd, Civitas Social Housing, Honeywell International Inc.
UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Halifax House Price Index (08:30)
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Factory Orders (GER) (07:00), Industrial Production (GER) (07:00), Gross Domestic Product (EU) (10:00), Unemployment Rate (US) (13:30), Non-Farm Payrolls (US) (13:30)