Good morning and welcome to the first Week Ahead of March - a big week for company reporting and British economics.
A budget at the beginning of an election year presents a big challenge for any chancellor. Throw in the fact that the UK has just been formally declared to be in a recession and Jeremy Hunt has his work cut out this week. We’ve already been told not to expect as big a tax cut as the public might have hoped for. But unfunded tax cuts don’t go down well with the market, so investors should probably be relieved that Mr Hunt is slightly more conservative than his predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng.
One thing investors will be on the lookout for on Wednesday is any more detail about a potential overhaul to the ISA tax wrapper, to try and encourage more investment in domestic shares. Speculation about a British ISA - which gives additional tax relief for investments in UK stocks - has been brewing for the last few months, but there are concerns that this would bring more complications than solutions (and complications are the last thing needed to get Brits investing in our own companies).
Looking at the hefty slug of financial results due this week, it’s clear why something needs to be done to stimulate some excitement in the London Stock Exchange. Despite a huge number of companies in the FTSE 350 reporting this week, there is not an awful lot to be enthusiastic about. Craneware and Quartix - two former high flyers in the small caps arena - have reported this morning and we’ll have numbers from Greggs tomorrow. But, there isn’t a lot else that is especially eye-catching.
Across the pond, the most interesting results are likely to come from Costco which continues to deliver incredibly impressive growth. The company has shown that it benefits from many different economic environments - with sales of cheaper, unbranded goods fuelling demand during inflationary periods and bigger ticket, discretionary items helping support the numbers when the economy is strong.
Announcements to look out for this week
| UK Companies Reporting | International Companies Reporting | Economic Announcements | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Final results including Craneware and Quartix | ||
| Tuesday | Henderson Small Companies Inv Trust interim results Final results including Fresnillo, Greggs, Hiscox, Inchcape, IWG, Keller, Reach, STV, Travis Perkins, XP Power |
Crowdstrike, Nordstrom… |
