Wednesday preview: US durable goods, Microsoft in focus

Financial markets' attention in the middle of the week would continue to be trained on the US.

At 1330 BST, the Department of Commerce would release durable goods orders figures covering the month of March.

In parallel, Commerce would publish a preliminary estimate for the country's deficit on trade in goods.

Across the Channel, at 0700 BST, consultancy GfK was to announce the results of its consumer confidence survey for Germany in May.

It would be followed at 0830 BST by the Riksbank's monetary policy decision and at 1300 BST by a speech from European Central Bank vice-president Luis de Guindos.

On the corporate side of things, investors would be pouring over the latest quarterly numbers out of Microsoft and Alphabet.

For Microsoft, adjusted earnings per share for the fiscal third quarter were seen coming in at $2.23.

At the time of its last quarterly results, the software maker and cloud computing outfit guided towards a further slowdown in growth over the next few quarters.

Revenues were seen flat at between $50.5-51.5bn with the company anticipating more weakness in personal computing, but alongside more strength in Azure.

Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK also pointed out that there might be more detail to be had regarding the challenges facing the Activision deal.

Alphabet meanwhile was seen posting a quarterly EPS of $1.10 for the first three months of 2023.

The advertising and search giant had already cautioned shareholders to expect charges of as much as $2.3bn for the quarter due to severance costs for 12,000 staff in this latest set of results.

Hewson believed investors would be hoping that the glitches around Bard, its AI release, might be closer to being resolved.

Wednesday 26 April

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Close Brothers Group

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Crude Oil Inventories (US) (15:30)

Durable Goods Orders (US) (13:30)

GFK Consumer Confidence (GER) (07:00)

MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)

GMS

OMV Petrom S.A. GDR (REG S)

FINALS

1Spatial, Biome Technologies, Sanderson Design Group, Skillcast Group, Warpaint London

ANNUAL REPORT

OMV Petrom S.A. GDR (REG S)

EGMS

Trian Investors 1 Limited NPV

AGMS

Alfa Financial Software Holdings , Allianz Technology Trust, Anglo American, Breedon Group , Bunzl, Croda International, Drax Group, Elementis, Global Invacom Group Limited (DI), Global Opportunities Trust, Lancashire Holdings Limited, MD Medical Group Investments GDR (Reg S), Metro Bank, Mobius Investment Trust , Nichols, Octopus AIM VCT 2, One Media IP Group, Persimmon, RIT Capital Partners, Trian Investors 1 Limited NPV

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Fresnillo, Glencore , Reckitt Benckiser Group, Smith & Nephew

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

BlackRock World Mining Trust, Maven Income & Growth 3 VCT

Q1

Gem Diamonds Ltd. (DI)