Wednesday preview: FOMC, Carney and Mitie in the spotlight

All eyes will be on the Federal Reserve's policy guidance on Wednesday.

According to the CME's Fed Watch tool, Fed funds futures were pricing-in just three more 25 basis point interest rate hikes by October 2019, including one on Wednesday.

Yet when they last updated markets on their views, in June, rate-setters at the US central bank said they were expecting between four and five additional hikes.

Hence, many observers had been worrying about the possibility that, if they did follow-through on those forecasts, then the so-called US yield curve might 'invert'.

Some policymakers believed quantitative easing was playing a hand in keeping longer-term yields low such that the slope of the interest rate curve was now less meaningful.

Others on the other hand were concerned that, in any case, an inverted yield curve would lead to less lending, paving the way for a slowdown in economic activity, if not a recession.

In timely fashion, soon after Fed chair Jerome Powell finishes his press conference, Bank of England Governor, Mark Carney, is set to participate on a panel at the Bloomberg One Planet Summit (20:40 BST), in New York.

Meanwhile, among the UK companies that are set to update their shareholders on Wednesday is Mitie Group.

Numis analyst James Beard is expecting the outsourced facilities management group to provide investors with qualitative detail on trading conditions over the preceding six months, progress on its Project Helix transformation programme, as well as on its cash flow and net debt.

Beard's forecasts called for organic sales growth of 4.5% in fiscal year 2019, although for 2018 higher costs resulting from the National Living Wage were expected to pressure margins.

Indeed, although the shares were changing hands at a price-to-earnings multiple of just 10.4, he remained "cautious".

"In our view, net debt and leverage remains key within the business, and given the headwind caused by the unwind of reverse factoring, we expect average net debt to remain broadly static through FY19 (FY18 £286m, average net debt/EBITDA 3.0x)."

Wednesday September 26

INTERIMS

AA , Amryt Pharma, Armadale Capital, Billing Services Group Ltd., Boohoo Group, Centralnic Group , Corero Network Security, Crawshaw Group, Destiny Pharma , Destiny Pharma , Minds + Machines Group Limited (DI), Novacyt S.A. (CDI), Pelatro , Summit Germany Limited

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

CRH, Ferrexpo, Lloyds Banking Group

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Crude Oil Inventories (US) (15:30)

MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)

New Homes Sales (US) (15:00)

GMS

Griffin Mining Ltd.

FINALS

Accrol Group Holdings, Allergy Therapeutics, James Halstead, Town Centre Securities

AGMS

Argo Group Ltd., Enteq Upstream, Fulcrum Utility Services Ltd. (DI), Gateley (Holdings) , Hornby, IMImobile , Legendary Investments, Nakama Group, PZ Cussons, Scholium Group, Tavistock Investments

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Futura Medical, Halma, Low & Bonar, Mitie Group, NCC Group, PZ Cussons, SSP Group , Trifast

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

BBA Mortgage Lending Figures (09:30)

CBI Industrial Trends Surveys (11:00)

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Brooks Macdonald Group