Thursday is a busy day for company announcements but investors could be forgiven for keeping more than one eye out for news of the Spanish austerity budget and the 9:30 announcement of the Office for National Statistics' latest stab at estimating UK gross domestic product (GDP).
The market is not expecting any revision to the previous GDP reading for the second quarter, which indicated a 0.5% quarter-on-quarter decline.
Out at the same time is UK trade data, which will see the nation's supplies of red ink run low.
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"Monthly external trade data are not as bad as assumed in the second GDP estimate, which also marginally eases its negative effect on the current account (by £0.2bn to -£10.9bn), but with income struggling (£2.5bn) and current transfers persistently negative (-£5.5bn) in our forecast, we expect a current account balance of -£13.9bn. Trade revisions lead us to expect a small worsening in the Q1 deficit too," Nomura said.
On the results front, package tour operator TUI Travel will issue a pre-close period trading update.
The consensus estimate for full-year earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) is £480m and TUI's management is confident of achieving this despite foreseeing a large negative foreign exchange impact. Broker Jefferies Hoare Govett thinks that a weaker euro could hit fourth-quarter EBIT by up to £40m, implying underlying upgrades of 8%.
Peel Hunt, meanwhile, thinks the group will have had a solid end to its trading year, with stable demand and pricing in all core markets with the exception of France.
"A weak euro will have been a negative factor in the latter half of the year but this is largely a translation dynamic not a trading one. Overall we do not expect any change in the consistency of the message," the broker said.
Contract caterer Compass is also issuing a pre-close statement and Credit Suisse thinks it will reinforce its positive rating on the firm, "given low European exposure, the strength of its US market share gains which should offset any slower European employment trends and the scope for very material multi-year cash returns."
INTERIMS
Circle Holdings , Dolphin Capital Investors Ltd, Fairpoint Group, OSJC Center for Cargo Container Traffic Transcontainer GDR (Reg S), SimiGon Ltd. (DI)
INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Low & Bonar, Pennant International Group, Prudential, Reckitt Benckiser Group, Schroders, Schroders (Non-Voting)
QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE
Total SA
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Bloomberg Consumer Confidence (US) (14:45)
Business Climate Indicator (EU) (10:00)
Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)
Durable Goods Orders (US) (13:30)
Economic Sentiment Indicator (EU) (10:00)
GDP (Final) (US) (13:30)
Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)
M3 Money Supply (EU) (09:00)
Pending Homes Sales (US) (15:00)
PMI Retail (EU) (09:00)
PMI Retail (GER) (08:55)
Unemployment Rate (GER) (08:55)
FINALS
Hansard Global
AGMS
Miton Worldwide Growth Inv Trust, Park Group, Toledo Mining Corp.
TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Compass Group, Tate & Lyle, TUI Travel
UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Balance of Payments (09:30)
Current Account (09:30)
GDP (quarterly national accounts) (09:30)
GFK Consumer Confidence (00:01)
Index of Services (09:30)
FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Fletcher King
JH
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