Week ahead: Retail sales, M&S in focus

The coming week will bring with it readings on UK retail sales from both the Office for National Statistics and in the form of the latest distributive trades survey from CBI, referencing April and May, respectively.

Those reports, which are due out on Thursday and Wednesday, will be of special interest given Bank's recent decision to cut its forecast for the rate of growth in Britain's gross domestic product in 2018 from 1.8% to 1.4%, a decision that some observers linked, in part, to recent weak prints on consumer spending.

On that note, on 18 May, economists at BoA-ML pointed out to clients that "Our proprietary UK consumer survey suggests UK consumers have become less willing to spend. Weak growth may not be a blip. The explanation may be tighter credit conditions, a soft housing market and expectations of rate hikes."

For their part, analysts at Barclays said they expected the ONS data to show a 'bounce back' following weather-related weakness in March, but "the underlying structural weakness to continue".

Also scheduled for release in the UK were public sector borrowing and CPI figures both for April, on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Stateside, the spotlight was likely to be on the US central bank, with at least six Fed speakers lined-up for throughout the week.

Meanwhile, across the Channel, Tuesday would also bring with it the preliminary results of IHS Markit's widely-followed manufacturing and service sector PMI's.

On the corporate side of things, fashion retailer Marks&Spencer, one of the market's most shorted stocks, was set to update investors.

Its full-year and fiscal fourth quarter numbers will arrive with the shares having shed roughly a quarter of their worth over the past year, leading to some 'market chatter' that it might fall out of the ranks of the top-flight index.

Ahead of its latest financials, and amid some speculation that the dividend might be at risk, over the past month or so the stock had staged a modest rebound.

The consensus forecast from Bloomberg is for full-year underlying profits before tax to print at £573m with the dividend payout flat versus the previous year at 18.7p.

Earnings per share were pegged at 27.8p on an underlying and diluted basis.

A strong focus would be the company's guidance for the next fiscal year, analysts at Deutsche Bank said, pointing out a "modest" risk that the dividend might need to be cut.

"Our base case is that regular dividend of 18.7p is held since this remains covered by (adjusted) earnings and free cash flow though there is a modest risk that an acceleration of transformation plans requires a cut."

Monday May 21

INTERIMS

Barloworld Ltd., Jersey Electricity 'A' Shares

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE

Supermarket Income Reit

FINALS

LXI Reit , Mckay Securities, Ryanair Holdings, Sigmaroc

AGMS

4D Pharma , BP, Cloudcall Group, Mporium Group, Restore, Secure Income Reit , TBC Bank Group

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Restore

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Melrose Industries, Morgan Sindall Group, National Express Group, Property Franchise Group

Q1

BGEO Group

Tuesday May 22

INTERIMS

Greencore Group, MedicX Fund Ltd., Oxford Biodynamics , Renew Holdings, Shaftesbury, Topps Tiles, UDG Healthcare Public Limited Company, Watkin Jones

FINALS

1Spatial, Big Yellow Group, Bloomsbury Publishing, Cranswick, Entertainment One Limited, First Derivatives, Halfords Group, Homeserve, Intermediate Capital Group, JZ Capital Partners Ltd, Nex Group , Pets at Home Group , Scapa Group, Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust Ltd

IMSS

Riverstone Energy Limited

EGMS

Societatea Nationala De Gaze Naturale Romgaz S.A. GDR (Reg S)

AGMS

Accesso Technology Group, Arrow Global Group, Attraqt Group , Avesoro Resources Inc. (DI), Burford Capital , Epwin Group, Fidelity Japanese Values, Foresight VCT, Forterra, Getbusy, Gocompare.com Group, Gulf Marine Services, JSC KazMunaiGaz Exploration Production GDR (Reg S), Marshall Motor Holdings, Menhaden Capital , Riverstone Energy Limited , Royal Dutch Shell 'A', Sherborne Investors (Guernsey) 'B' Limited, Sherborne Investors (Guernsey) C Limited NPV, Stock Spirits Group , Xaar

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Close Brothers Group, Galliford Try

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Public Sector Net Borrowing (09:30)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Aggreko, Holders Technology, Mortgage Advice Bureau (Holdings) , Relx plc

Q1

MHP SE GDR (Reg S), Nostrum Oil & Gas

Wednesday May 23

INTERIMS

Britvic, easyHotel, Hollywood Bowl Group, Ixico, Sanderson Group, Stride Gaming, ZPG Plc

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Crude Oil Inventories (US) (15:30)

Gross Domestic Product (GER) (07:00)

MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)

New Homes Sales (US) (15:00)

Q3

Softcat

FINALS

Assura , Dairy Crest Group, Great Portland Estates, HICL Infrastructure Company Ltd, Marks & Spencer Group, OptiBiotix Health, Severn Trent, Severn Trent, Vedanta Resources

SPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

AIREA, Glencore

AGMS

Access Intelligence, Allied Minds , Antofagasta, Bakkavor Group , Boku, Inc (DI) Reg S, Bovis Homes Group, Cabot Energy, Central Asia Metals, Ferguson, Fundsmith Emerging Equities Trust , Gamma Communications, Golden Prospect Precious Metals Ltd., Hilton Food Group, ICG-Longbow Senior Secured UK Property Debt Investments Ltd, Keller Group, Lamprell, Medica Group , Mercantile Investment Trust (The), MTI Wireless Edge Ltd., N4 Pharma , NAHL Group, Norish Units, Polypipe Group , Restaurant Group, Satellite Solutions Worldwide Group, Smart Metering Systems, St James's Place, STM Group, Xeros Technology Group , XLMedia

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Bovis Homes Group, Hilton Food Group, Keller Group

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

CBI Industrial Trends Surveys (11:00)

Consumer Price Index (09:30)

Retail Price Index (09:30)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Capital & Counties Properties , Chesnara, Eurocell , Hunters Property , Pendragon, Polymetal International, Rotork, SafeCharge International Group Limited (DI)

Thursday May 24

INTERIMS

Daily Mail and General Trust A (Non.V), Daily Mail and General Trust A (Non.V), Paragon Banking Group, Shoe Zone

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Avingtrans, Bellway, Brewin Dolphin Holdings, Cerillion , Countryside Properties, Diploma, Euromoney Institutional Investor, Gattaca, Grainger, Income & Growth VCT , Keystone Inv Trust, Marston's, Maven Income & Growth 2 VCT, Mobeus Income & Growth 4 Vct, Town Centre Securities

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE

M Winkworth, Tetragon Financial Group Limited

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Blackrock North American Income Trust , Carnival, HICL Infrastructure Company Ltd, NextEnergy Solar Fund Limited Red, Premier Global Infrastructure Trust, Regional REIT Limited

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)

Existing Home Sales (US) (15:00)

GFK Consumer Confidence (GER) (07:00)

House Price Index (US) (14:00)

Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)

FINALS

Caledonia Investments, Electrocomponents, Helical, Mediclinic International , NewRiver REIT, PayPoint, QinetiQ Group, Renewi , TalkTalk Telecom Group , Tate & Lyle, United Utilities Group, Wizz Air Holdings , Young & Co's Brewery 'A' Shares

SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Kape Technologies, Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets

AGMS

Jersey Oil And Gas , Alliance Pharma, Arena Events Group , Balfour Beatty, Cambridge Cognition Holdings, DP Eurasia N.V. (DI) , EnQuest, Escape Hunt , Eve Sleep PLC, F&C Private Equity Trust, Hastings Group Holdings , Headlam Group, Henry Boot, Huntsworth, Ibstock , Inchcape, Ingenta, Instem, Instem, Intertek Group, Learning Technologies Group , Lloyds Banking Group, Manx Financial Group, Sabre Insurance Group, Sound Energy , Spire Healthcare Group, Sportech, StatPro Group, Strix Group , Tissue Regenix Group, Yu Group

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Balfour Beatty, Go-Ahead Group, Huntsworth, Inchcape, Intertek Group, Kingfisher

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Retail Sales (09:30)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Bank of Ireland Group , Churchill China, Gresham Technologies, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Impax Environmental Markets, ITV, Reckitt Benckiser Group, UBM, Zotefoams

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Advanced Medical Solutions Group, British American Inv Trust, Bunzl, C&C Group, DCC, FDM Group (Holdings), Filta Group Holdings, Hill & Smith Holdings, Howden Joinery Group, Huntsworth, Manx Telecom , Menzies(John), Midwich Group, Mincon Group , Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets, Soco International, Spectris, Ten Entertainment Group , The Gym Group, Venture Life Group, Whitbread

Friday May 25

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE

APQ Global Limited, Primary Health Properties, SQN Secured Income Fund

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Durable Goods Orders (US) (13:30)

IFO Business Climate (GER) (09:00)

IFO Current Assessment (GER) (09:00)

IFO Expectations (GER) (09:00)

U. of Michigan Confidence (US) (15:00)

FINALS

Pennon Group, SSE, Volvere

SPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Mondi

AGMS

Air China Ltd., Contour Global , Etalon Group GDR (Reg S), Ferrexpo, Hochschild Mining, Hydrogen Group, Informa, Keywords Studios, Spectris, TCS Group Holding GDR (Each Repr 1 A Shr) (Reg S)

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Spectris

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

BBA Mortgage Lending Figures (09:30)

GDP (Preliminary) (09:30)

Index of Services (09:30)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Antofagasta, BBA Aviation, Bovis Homes Group, Cello Health, Centaur Media, Central Asia Metals, Charles Taylor, Clarke (T.), EP Global Opportunities Trust, esure Group, Fevertree Drinks, Foxtons Group , Gocompare.com Group, Highland Gold Mining Ltd., Inmarsat, IWG , Just Group, Marshall Motor Holdings, Microgen, Mondi, Morgan Advanced Materials , Petrofac Ltd., Polypipe Group , Secure Trust Bank, Spirax-Sarco Engineering, Stock Spirits Group , Tribal Group, Vesuvius