Money Minute Thursday 6 February: will Royal Mail deliver for investors?

Good morning and welcome to Money Minute, where we preview the day's biggest financial stories.

On the corporate front in the UK this morning, we get a trading update from parcel delivery group Royal Mail. Performance over Christmas will be a key focus for investors, given the company’s need to grab a bigger share of the market for online shopping deliveries.

There are also trading updates from catering giant Compass, ingredients group Tate & Lyle, and fashion retailer Superdry. Half-year trading updates are due from asset manager Ashmore, and from specialist engineering group Filtronic.

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Over in the US, we get the weekly initial jobless claims data. In effect, this shows how many people joined the dole queue in the US for the first time last week. The claims data is the most timely US labour market release. It’s closely watched as a result. If the US economy is slowing down, it’ll show up here first. However, this week its importance will be overshadowed by the monthly nonfarm payrolls report, due out tomorrow.