Thursday preview: Fed's Powell, Schroders in the spotlight
The focus in financial markets on Thursday will be on any policy-relevant remarks out of US Federal Reserve chief, Jerome Powell, at an event hosted by the Wall Street Journal, starting from 1700 GMT.
Investors will also be keeping close tabs on the latest weekly unemployment claims figures, although any reaction is likely to be subdued ahead of the release of the all-important monthly jobs report that is set for release on the following day.
Across the Channel, at 1000 GMT Eurostat will publish figures for euro area unemployment and retail sales referencing the month of January, both at 1000 GMT.
Back in the UK, the only new data due out are car registration figures and IHS Markit's construction sector PMI, both for the month of February.
Further afield, rate-setters in Malaysia are set to meet to decide on monetary policy.
For Schroders second half results, UBS's Michael Werner has penciled-in assets under management of £561bn or 12% ahead on a year earlier.
That figure excluded the £29.8bn in one-off inflows from the Lloyds mandate and mergers and acquisitions booked in the first half, the analyst added.
Werner was well ahead of consensus in his estimate for second half inflows, anticipating £10.5bn against the median consensus estimate of £6.5bn.
His projections called for Schroders to beat analysts' estimates across all its business lines, especially in its Mutual Funds unit, forecasting £2.1bn of inflows versus a consensus on £0.7bn.
Inflows into its Institutional arm were also seen beating by a wide margin, with inflows expected to come in at £2.9bn (consensus: £0.9bn).
Profit before tax for the half on the other hand was seen printing at £340m, or down by 6% on the year and 1% below consensus on the back of £1.1bn in net revenues.
Thursday 4 March
FINALS
Coats Group, Cairn Homes, CRH, Synthomer, Melrose Industries, Vesuvius, Entain, Schroders, Vistry Group
Aviva, Hunting, Meggitt, Spire Healthcare Group, Mail.ru Group Ltd GDR (Reg S), Morgan Advanced Materials
Franchise Brands, Hutchison China Meditech Ltd, Rentokil Initial, Rathbone Brothers, William Hill
INTERIMS
Origin Enterprises, Galliford Try, Ruffer Investment Company Ltd Red PTG Pref Shares
Q4
Mail.ru Group Ltd GDR (Reg S)
TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Hansard Global
AGMs
Chemring Group, Jersey Electricity 'A' Shares, ECO Animal Health Group
FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Safestore Holdings, Rio Tinto, Standard Chartered, Rights & Issues Investment Trust, Scottish American Inv Company
INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Gresham House Energy Storage Fund, St James's Place, Genus, Fonix Mobile, BHP Group, Atlantis Japan Growth Fund Ltd., Dechra Pharmaceuticals, Henderson Diversified Income Ltd., Oxford Instruments, Aberdeen Standard Equity Income Trust, Jupiter Emerging & Frontier Income Trust RED, Draper Esprit VCT, Personal Assets Trust, Utilico Emerging Markets Ltd (DI), Globalworth Real Estate Investments Limited, Warehouse Reit, Ricardo, Jlen Environmental Assets Group Limited NPV, VPC Specialty Lending Investments, Springfield Properties, Berkeley Group Holdings (The), MJ Gleeson, City of London Investment Group, Aberdeen Standard European Logistics Income, Jupiter UK Growth Investment Trust, Grit Real Estate Income Group Limited NPV, Crown Place VCT, Renishaw, Ashmore Group
SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Sylvania Platinum Ltd (DI), Rio Tinto, Hunters Property
QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Honeycomb Investment Trust, RM Secured Direct Lending, Diversified Gas & Oil, UIL Limited (DI), Premier Miton Global Renewables Trust, Real Estate Credit Investments Ltd, Aberdeen Diversified Income and Growth Trust, HICL Infrastructure, Regional REIT Limited
UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
PMI Construction (09:30
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Retail Sales (EU) (10:00)
Unemployment Rate (EU) (10:00)
Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)
Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)
Factory Orders (US) (15:00)