Thursday preview: US jobs market, Auto Trader in focus

The market spotlight on Thursday will shift back towards the US, where a raft of top-tier economic indicators are due out.

Chief among those will be the latest weekly jobless claims figures, which are forecast to show a further moderate slowdown in the pace of firings to 1.25m versus 1.51m during the week before.

Continuing claims numbers in the US, which are contained in the same report and provide a glimpse into hiring, will also be closely scrutinised.

Reading on durable goods orders for June and foreign trade in May are also set for release.

On home shores, the main reference will be the Confederation of British Industry's Distributive Trades Index for June.

However, Bank of England chief economist, Andy Haldane, is due to speak at 1700 BST.

And on the Continent, at 12:30 BST, the European Central Bank will publish the minutes from its 3-4 June policy meeting.

Among other matters, investors are keen to see whether, in a concession to Germany's constitutional court, it provides further details on the judgements around the 'proportionality' underlying its decisions.

Nonetheless, precisely for that reason, on Wednesday, the ECB had already provided Germany's national monetary authority, the Bundesbank, with additional documents, Reuters reported.

Consultancy GfK will release its German consumer confidence index for July.

In the emerging markets space, monetary policy announcements are scheduled in Egypt, Philippines and Turkey.

Auto Trader was among the few UK corporates that were due to update financial markets on Thursday.

UBS analyst Adam Berlin said he expected the weakness seen over the front half of its financial year to have accelerated during the last six months of the year.

Nonetheless, his expectation was for positive comments from management as regards trading in 2021 ex-Covid-19 thanks to new product launches and with a trajectory towards full pricing.

Thursday 25 June

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

One Media IP Group

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Mercantile Investment Trust (The), RWS Holdings, S and U 31.5% Prf. Cum. Prf 12.5P

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Alpha Real Trust Ltd., Law Debenture Corp., Mercantile Investment Trust (The), Real Estate Investors, Standard Life Private Equity Trust

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)

Durable Goods Orders (US) (13:30)

GFK Consumer Confidence (GER) (07:00)

Gross Domestic Product (US) (13:30)

Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)

Personal Consumption Expenditures (US) (13:30)

Wholesales Inventories (US) (13:30)

GMS

Maruwa Co Ltd.

FINALS

Best of the Best, Dixons Carphone , First Property Group, Mitie Group, Redcentric, XPS Pensions Group

SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Best of the Best

AGMS

3i Group, Africa Opportunity Fund Limited, Anpario, Argo Blockchain, Atalaya Mining, Auctus Growth, Balfour Beatty, Barr (A.G.), BH Macro Ltd. GBP Shares, Biome Technologies, BioPharma Credit , Capita, Cenkos Securities, Coro Energy, Global Invacom Group Limited (DI), Gresham House Renewable Energy VCT 1 , Gresham House Renewable Energy VCT 2, Helios Underwriting, KRM22, Lamprell, M & G Credit Income Investment Trust , Marston's, NAHL Group, NB Distressed Debt Investment Fund Limited, Next Fifteen Communications, NMCN, Pacific Assets Trust, Pebble Beach Systems Group , Premier Oil, Property Franchise Group, RTW Venture Fund Limited NPV, Savannah Resources, Savills, Science In Sport, Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust, Serica Energy, Sigma Capital Group, Sumo Group , Tandem Group, Trainline, Westminster Group

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

CBI Distributive Trades Surveys (11:00)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Africa Opportunity Fund Limited

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

B.P. Marsh & Partners, Caledonia Investments, Edinburgh Inv Trust, Helical, JPMorgan Euro Small Co. Trust, Serica Energy, United Utilities Group