Wednesday preview: US jobs data, Wizz Air in focus

Market participants' focus on Thursday will be on the jobs market on either side of the Pond, together with readings on services sector activity in the Eurozone and UK.

The latest weekly initial jobless claims figures in the States are expected to show a dip in the number of people filing for unemployment benefits in the US to 1.780m, against a rise of 2.123m the week before.

Analysts will also be watching to see if secondary unemployment claims dip alongside, a sign that gross hiring is on the mend as lockdown measures ease.

Across the Channel meanwhile, Eurostat is expected to report a surge in the single currency bloc's unemployment rate from 7.4% for March to 8.2% in April.

More timely data for Germany covering the month of May is projected to show that jobless growth nearly halved from April's reading of 373,000 to 188,000.

Revised services sector Purchasing Managers' Indices for the euro area and UK in May meanwhile are expected to be little changed from their preliminary readings of 28.7 and 27.8, respectively, both of which were extraordinarily weak.

On the corporate side of things, regional carrier Wizz Air will update markets on first quarter trading.

Analysts at UBS have penciled in €2.775bn of revenues, which is roughly line with consensus, for adjusted net profits of €352m versus company guidance for €340-360m.

Investors' focus they said would be on the company's rate of cash burn, its expectations around the expected opening of markets and any financial guidance that it might provide for 2021, and around its plans for capital expenditures.

Just the day before, analysts at Bank of America had highlighted Wizz Air's big cost advantage versus rivals and the fact that it operated in geographies that were expected to see growth in passenger traffic over the medium-term.

They also drew attention to the carrier's comfortable cash position which at current rates of cash burn gave it a roughly 30-month buffer.

Wednesday 03 June

INTERIMS

SSP Group , SSP Group

FINALS

Angling Direct , ASA International Group , Instem

AGMS

Albion Technology & General VCT, Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings, DP Eurasia N.V. (DI) , Everyman Media Group , Frenkel Topping Group, Gamesys Group, Gem Diamonds Ltd. (DI), Hurricane Energy, Jersey Oil and Gas , Venture Life Group

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Fundsmith Emerging Equities Trust , Strix Group