Thursday preview: EU summit, UK retail sales in the spotlight
The spotlight on Thursday will be on the result of the European Union leaders' summit in Brussels.
Nevertheless, little is expected in terms of fresh progress. Indeed, expectations appear to be building for both sides to pursue delaying tactics in a bid to take any decision right down 'to the wire'.
Against that backdrop, at 0930 BST, ONS will report on UK retail sales volumes in September.
Consensus is for an acceleration in the year-on-year rate of growth from the 3.3% pace observed in August to 3.6% for September.
Stateside, the main release of the session will be the Federal Reserve bank of Philadelphia's manufacturing sector survey for the month of October, at 1330 BST.
The flow of corporate updates is scheduled to pick-up on Thursday, with the likes of consumer goods giant Unilever and Domino's Pizza set to update shareholders.
For the former, UBS was forecasting an acceleration in its underlying sales growth (in euros) from the 2.5% seen over the first half of the year to 5.0% (2.3% volume, 2.7% price), versus a median consensus forecast for an increase to 4.3%.
The main driver, but by no means the only one, was expected to be a roughly 40% jump in the average price of its products in Argentina.
Nevertheless, the Swiss broker was below consensus in its projections for the company's sales volumes, predicting that demand would be impacted by price increases, especially in the emerging markets space.
For Domino's Pizza, Numis analyst Richard Stuber had penciled-in third quarter UK like-for-like sales growth (ex splits) of 0.5%, on the back of the atypically hot and dry July and early August, which would mark a substantial slowdown from growth of 5.9% observed over the front half of the year.
Tough comparators was another factor expected to weigh on the company's LFLs, although anything above 1% "should be supportive", he said.
Other aspect of the firm's trading to focus on was the rate of new openings, the analyst added, given concerns in some corners that franchisees were unwilling to open new establishments.
System sales in the UK and Ireland were seen at up by 7% year-on-year to £280m with international revenues 10% higher to £28m
An extension of its share buybacks was also expected.
In Stuber's opinion, the shares had been "unfairly" marked down and were trading at about 14 times' his estimate for fiscal year 2019 earnings - a nine-year low - versus rivals at roughly 30 times profits.
Thursday October 18
INTERIMS
HarbourVest Global Private Equity Limited A Shs
INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Gamma Communications, Octopus AIM VCT 2, TT Electronics
INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Amati AIM Vct , BAE Systems, Downing Three VCT F Shs, Downing Two VCT F Shs , Downing Two VCT G Shs, Inspired Energy, Intu Properties, Kerry Group 'A' Shares, Lookers, M. P. Evans Group, Marshalls, Mears Group, Menzies(John), Moss Bros Group, Saga , Stilo International, Witan Pacific Inv Trust
QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE
City of London Inv Trust, Supermarket Income Reit
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)
Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)
Philadelphia Fed Index (US) (13:30)
Wholesale Price Index (GER) (07:00)
Q3
Domino's Pizza Group, Unilever
GMS
Societatea Nationala De Gaze Naturale Romgaz S.A. GDR (Reg S)
FINALS
Applied Graphene Materials , Tristel
SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Kubera Cross-Border Fund Ltd.
EGMS
Societatea Nationala De Gaze Naturale Romgaz S.A. GDR (Reg S)
AGMS
Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd., Myanmar Investments International Ltd, Rank Group, Renishaw
TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Domino's Pizza Group, International Personal Finance, Renishaw, Rentokil Initial, RWS Holdings
UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Retail Sales (09:30)
FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Avation
FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Grit Real Estate Income Group Limited NPV (DI), Henderson EuroTrust, Jupiter UK Growth Investment Trust, Photo-Me International, Schroder Japan Growth Fund, Smiths Group, Sylvania Platinum Ltd (DI), Wilmington