Thursday preview: US-China trade, Premier Oil and CRH in focus

Barring any surprises from the minutes of the US Federal Reserve's las policy meeting due out on Wednesday night, the spotlight in markets will continue to be on the results, if any, of the latest round trade talks that are taking place between China and the US in Washington.

Against that backdrop, the main releases in the US will be a reading on new home sales covering the month of July and he FHFA's house price index for the month of June.

Both indicators may be especially interesting at the current juncture, given how housing is one of the few obvious weak spots in the US economy at the moment.

Back in the UK, the Confederation of British Industry is due to publish the results of is Distributive Trades survey for August, at 1100 BST.

In the euro area meanwhile, the main release of the session will be the preliminary results of IHS Markit's manufacturing and services sector Purchasing Managers' Index for August, at 0900 BST.

As one of the timeliest reports each month on conditions within the euro area economy, those PMIs frequently trigger a sizeable market reaction.

Premier Oil is among those companies slated to release results on Thursday.

On 16 August, analysts at UBS said they were especially keen to see if the oil explorer dropped any hints regarding impending reserve or production upgrades at the Catcher field, in the North Sea, given how the well capacity there was double that of the facilities in place.

The Swiss broker had estimated that Premier's output was running at 79,600 barrels of oil equivalent per day, which would be up from the 68,000 seen in the second half of 2017, after Catcher came on-stream at the end of 2017.

Updates were also wanted on Tolmount Main, the appraisal wells at Zama and as regards funding for phase-1 of Sea Lion, offshore Falklands, UBS said.

US-focused building materials supplier CRH is also due out with its own interims, with Deutsche Bank forecasting like-for-like sales growth of 3.9% for the first half of the year in euro terms.

For the full-year, Deutsche's Glynis Johnson had penciled-in EBITDA growth of 4.6% for the Irish firm.

Thursday August 23

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)

House Price Index (US) (14:00)

Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)

New Homes Sales (US) (15:00)

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

CBI Distributive Trades Surveys (11:00)

FINALS

Arcontech Group

INTERIMS

Anglo Pacific Group, Bank of Cyprus Holdings Public Limited Company, CRH, John Laing Group , Macfarlane Group, OneSavings Bank, Phoenix Group Holdings (DI), Playtech, Premier Oil, Sportech

Q2

MHP SE GDR (Reg S)

SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Quilter

AGMS

D4T4 Solutions, The Fulham Shore, The Fulham Shore

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Cohort, Dixons Carphone , First Property Group, JPMorgan Brazil Inv Trust , Miton UK Microcap Trust, Park Group, Ramsdens Holdings , Stagecoach Group, Triad Group

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Apax Global Alpha Limited , Baronsmead Second Venture Trust, Baronsmead Venture Trust, CLS Holdings, Croda International, Devro, FDM Group (Holdings), Ferrexpo, Franchise Brands, Glanbia, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group, London Stock Exchange Group, Marshall Motor Holdings, Mithras Inv Trust, Mobeus Income & Growth Vct, Mondi, Paddy Power Betfair, Plus500 Ltd (DI), Prudential, Rotork, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Sabre Insurance Group

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE

BlackRock Latin American Inv Trust, Fair Oaks Income Limited 2014 Shs NPV, Fair Oaks Income Limited 2017 Shs NPV, M Winkworth

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Blackrock North American Income Trust , Carnival, HICL Infrastructure Company Ltd, NextEnergy Solar Fund Limited Red, Premier Global Infrastructure Trust, Real Estate Credit Investments Ltd