Wednesday preview: WH Smith, BoE's MPC minutes

With the flurry of Christmas trading updates almost over, newsagent WH Smith is one of the last of the household names from the retail sector to report, when it has its annual general meeting on Wednesday.

In its November update WH Smith said sales in the first 10 weeks of its financial year were down 3%, with like-for-like sales (LFL) down 6% compared to the same period last year. Sales at WH Smith Travel - which has outlets in airports, train stations and motorway services, etc. - were down 4% year-on-year on a LFL basis, but the decline may have been arrested in December, given that in the corresponding month of 2010 sales would have been affected by the adverse weather conditions.

As for sales on the High Street - the group's other division - these fell 6% on a LFL basis. This division might also benefit from soft comparatives from December 2010. Broker Peel Hunt has suggested that first half sales will be down 5% in the High Street retail business and 3.5% lower than a year earlier in the Travel division.

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The minutes from the January meeting of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will be released at 9:30. A gratifyingly large fall in UK inflation in December has given scope for the MPC to expand its quantitative easing (QE) programme some more without unduly fuelling inflation, but committee member Ben Broadbent recently said that the MPC has not yet made its mind up on this matter.

The QE (asset purchasing) programme was upped to £275bn in October from £200bn previously, and many economists think the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street will open the tap up a bit more next month as economic growth in the UK appears to be stalling, but speaking in an interview with Market News International, Broadbent said "I am free, have been free, at the subsequent meetings and will be free in the one in February, to vote as I see fit."

Fellow MPC member Adam Posen indicated on Monday evening that the central bank will vote for further asset purchases if new forecasts for growth and inflation support that course of action.

The significance of that statement of the obvious is that it indicates that the the Bank is still in the process of finalising its new quarterly economic forecasts, which will be ready in time for the next meeting of the MPC, in February.

INTERIMS

Ebiquity, Renishaw

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Latham (James)

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Anite, Fletcher King, IG Group Holdings, NCC Group, SSE

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE

Molex Inc., Molex Inc. 'A' Shares

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE

City of London Inv Trust, Merchants Trust

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Crude Oil Inventories (US) (15:30)

FOMC Interest Rate (US) (17:15)

House Price Index (US) (15:00)

IFO Business Climate (GER) (09:00)

IFO Current Assessment (GER) (09:00)

IFO Expectations (GER) (09:00)

MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)

Pending Homes Sales (US) (15:00)

IMSS

Britvic, Metric Property Investments

AGMS

Artisan, Britvic, GW Pharmaceuticals, Invesco Leveraged High Yield Fund Ltd., Polar Capital Global Healthcare Growth & Income Trust, Renew Holdings, WH Smith

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

BBA Mortgage Lending Figures (09:30)

BoE Interest Rate Minutes (09:30)

CBI Industrial Trends Surveys (11:00)

GDP (Preliminary) (09:30)

Index of Services (09:30)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Diploma, Majedie Investments

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Blackrock Frontiers Investment Trust, British Portfolio Trust, Compass Group, Gooch & Housego, Renew Holdings, Shaftesbury, Titon Holdings, Treatt