Tuesday preview: US housing, Polymetal in the spotlight

The focus in financial markets on Tuesday will be on US housing for June with data from the Federal Housing and Finance Agency, alongside figures from S&P Case Shiller both expected to reveal a small further pick up in prices.

New home sales data for July meanwhile were expected to deliver an upside surprise, at least by Barclays Research, with Commerce seen announcing a rise in the pace of new home sales from 776,000 in June to 815,000 for July (consensus: 775,000).

The results of the German IFO institute's closely-followed business confidence survey for the month of August are also due out.

No major economic releases are scheduled in the UK.

Ahead of Polymetal's first half numbers, UBS analyst Daniel Major said he was expecting the gold miner to reiterate its forecast for full-year 2020 output of 1.5m ounce of gold equivalent.

For the second quarter specifically, Major anticipated a quarter-on-quarter decline in production of the yellow metal, after a "strong" start to the year, with the large number of assets and seasonality making it more difficult to predict exact outcomes than for peers.

Nonetheless, in the past, the miner had consistently managed to hit its annual production targets.

Previous guidance from the outfit was for all-in cash sustaining costs of $850-900/oz., a rouble exchange rate of 64 against the Greenback and $1,400/oz..

"YTD/spot inputs imply modest downside to cost guidance but POLY previously highlighted that changes to operating practice due to Covid will partly offset FX benefits; as a result we do not expect POLY to change FY20 cost guidance."

Potential catalysts to watch out for included any comments around changes in taxation laws in Russia and Kazhakstan and as regards the potential, or not, for a special dividend in 2020.

Monday 25 August

INTERIMS

Arrow Global Group

Polymetal International

Apax Global Alpha Limited

Fisher (James) & Sons

AGMs

Livermore Investments Group Ltd.

Iomart Group

Puma Vct 13

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

CBI Distributive Trades Surveys (11:00)

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Gross Domestic Product (GER) (07:00)

IFO Business Climate (GER) (09:00)

IFO Current Assessment (GER) (09:00)

IFO Expectations (GER) (09:00)

House Price Index (US) (14:00)

Consumer Confidence (US) (15:00)

New Homes Sales (US) (15:00)