Thursday preview: ECB, Morrisons in the spotlight

The spotlight on Thursday will be firmly on the European Central Bank's policy announcement.

Until just a few weeks ago, expectations had been building that policymakers in Frankfurt would look to somehow surprise financial markets with another dose of monetary easing.

And even now, economists like those at Barclays Research were forecasting a range of new measures to be announced, including a 10 basis point reduction in the deposit facility rate, so-called 'tiering' to offset the impact of a sustained period of negative interest rates on lenders, more quantitative easing, strengthened 'forward guidance' and easier terms on the TLTRO III financing for banks in the Eurozone.

But given the divisions that had surfaced among Governing Council members over roughly the past fortnight, they did not expect outgoing ECB chief, Mario Draghi, to overdeliver.

"We think that those who hold out hope for President Draghi over-delivering through eye-catching numbers – either larger rate cuts and/or bold QE – could be disappointed, as he has to balance the diverging views within the GC," they said.

"Instead, the ‘dovishness’ may be delivered through a strengthened commitment to reach higher inflation (forward guidance) and signalling that the ECB may have still more room to cut if/as needed."

Against that backdrop, and ahead of the Federal Reserve's own policy meeting scheduled for the following week, US consumer price data for August will be released at 1330 BST.

Investors will be looking for any further feed-through from the recently announced trade tariffs on Chinese goods to consumer level prices.

UBS's Andrew Hughes trimmed his estimates for Morrison's first half like-for-like sales and margins on the back of slower summer trading.

However, in a research note sent to clients, he anticipated margin uplift in the back half of the year while highlighting the grocer's 6.9% dividend yield and "lightly geared" balance sheet, adding that he saw limited downside risk for the shares over a longer-term horizon.

For his part, Michael Hewson at CMC Markets UK pointed out the prospect for its new co-operation with Amazon to begin feeding through into the company's numbers over coming months as they expanded their same day delivery service across the country.

Thursday September 12

INTERIMS

IGas Energy, Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets, Silence Therapeutics

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Avast, BBA Aviation, Belvoir Group, Churchill China, Computacenter, Costain Group, Dalata Hotel Group, Derwent London, Frenkel Topping Group, Goco Group , Highcroft Investment, Highland Gold Mining Ltd., Holders Technology, Hydrogen Group, Maintel Holdings, Melrose Industries, Restaurant Group, RPS Group, Total Produce, Wentworth Resources NPV, Zotefoams

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Assura , Cineworld Group, Fair Oaks Income Limited 2017 Shs NPV, Honeycomb Investment Trust, XP Power Ltd. (DI)

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Consumer Price Index (GER) (07:00)

Consumer Price Index (US) (13:30)

Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)

ECB Interest Rate (EU) (12:45)

Industrial Production (EU) (10:00)

Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)

GMS

Subex Ltd GDR (Reg S)

FINALS

Haynes Publishing Group

SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Pacific Alliance China Land Ltd.

AGMS

Atlantis Japan Growth Fund Ltd., Miton Global Opportunities, Montanaro European Smaller Companies Trust, Providence Resources, ReNeuron Group, Scancell Holdings, Scancell Holdings, Trident Resources , W H Ireland Group, XPS Pensions Group

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Safestore Holdings

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

RICS Housing Market Survey (00:01)

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Alpha Fx Group , Best of the Best, Colefax Group, Manolete Partners, Mattioli Woods, Oxford Instruments, South32 Limited (DI) , Trifast, UniVision Engineering Ltd.