Money Minute Thursday 5 December: UK company results, German manufacturing and US jobs

In the UK, popular investment platform provider AJ Bell issues its first set of full-year figures since it went public around about this time last year.Profits are expected to rise by about a fifth to just under £37 million.Investors will be particularly interested to see if the group has benefited from the Neil Woodford-related woes of its arch rival Hargreaves Lansdown.

Other companies reporting include paper and packaging group DS Smith, as well as media giant Daily Mail and General Trust.

In the eurozone, the latest data on German factory orders will be closely watched amid some tentative signs that the worst may be over for the global manufacturing sector.

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And over in the US, we get the latest report on weekly jobless claims.Tomorrow's monthly employment data is more important in terms of market impact, but analysts watch the weekly data closely for any early warning signs of a change in trend.