Thursday preview: Brexit, US-China trade talks in focus

Thursday may turn out to be an intense day on all fronts.

Overnight, investors will be digesting the headlines out of the meeting between the Prime Minister and the head of the European Commission, Jean Claude Juncker, in Brussels.

Against that backdrop, at 0930 GMT the Office for National Statistics will provide an update on the UK public sector net borrowing for January.

The data will be especially important given that January is the most important month for tax receipts and will therefore to what extent the Chancellor's budget is off-track.

Investors will also be analysing the contents of the latest US Federal Reserve meeting minutes released the night before, even as they prepare for the first high-level trade talks of the week between US and Chinese officials, in Washington.

On the data front, reports on durable goods orders for December and the Philly Fed's regional manufacturing index, covering the month of February, both hold the potential to move markets.

Across the Channel in the euro area meanwhile, all eyes will be on the preliminary results for IHS Markit's factory and service sector Purchasing Managers' Indices for February.

The corporate calendar is also quite heavy with scheduled releases, including finals from Barclays and Anglo American.

For the lender's corporate and investment banking arm, analysts at Deutsche Bank have penciled-in a 15% year-on-year drop in FICC revenues for the fourth quarter or an 8% drop after adjusting for exchange rates.

Equities on the other hand is seen sporting an underlying improvement of 5% with Banking also expected to have put in a solid showing.

Similarly, for Barclays's US consumer cards and payments unit, Deutsche points out that trends are pointing to a gradual deterioration in asset quality.

As for Anglo American, UBS is anticipating flat EBITDA for the second half of the year when compared to the first, thanks to steady prices for iron ore and coal but amid weakness in the South African rand.

Net debt is also seen little changed from the first six months of the year at approximately £3.8bn with the dividend payout at about 40%.

Thursday February 21

INTERIMS

Avation, Go-Ahead Group, Hays, InnovaDerma, Mcbride, Wilmington

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Ramsdens Holdings

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Heath (Samuel) & Sons, Mobeus Income & Growth 2 Vct

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Aberdeen Standard Equity Income Trust , Carnival, GlaxoSmithKline, HICL Infrastructure Company Ltd, NextEnergy Solar Fund Limited Red, Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV, Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV (USD)

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Consumer Price Index (GER) (13:00)

Consumer Price Index (GER) (07:00)

Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)

Existing Home Sales (US) (15:00)

Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)

Q4

Hellenic Telecom Industries SA ADS

FINALS

Anglo American, BAE Systems, Barclays, Centrica, Georgia Capital , Hellenic Telecom Industries SA ADS, Kaz Minerals , Macfarlane Group, Morgan Sindall Group, Playtech, Rathbone Brothers, Relx plc, RPS Group, Serco Group, TBC Bank Group, Telecom Egypt SAE GDS (Regs), Vitec Group

SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Independent Inv Trust

AGMS

CSF Group, IntegraFin Holding, Oxford Metrics, SSP Group , Sunrise Resources , Tertiary Minerals

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Arbuthnot Banking Group

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Public Sector Net Borrowing (09:30)

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Blackrock Throgmorton Trust, Driver Group, Imperial Brands , Independent Inv Trust, Jersey Electricity 'A' Shares, Lancashire Holdings Limited, Plus500 Ltd (DI)