THE WEEK AHEAD in association with GFT
COMPANY NEWS
● On Tuesday, RBS will hold its AGM. The Treasury, on behalf of British taxpayers, still owns the majority of its shares.
● Tesco will report on Tuesday. Every little helps. Fellow FTSE 100 companies Reed Elsevier and Hargreaves Lansdown will be posting first quarter and third quarter results respectively. It’s a busy week for Reed Elsevier, with its AGM on Wednesday.
● On Wednesday, Reckitt Benckiser will release first quarter results. The producers of Vanish, Clearasil and Finish will hope to clean up.
● Also on Wednesday, BHP Billiton will announce its third quarter results. It will be hoping to unearth strong results.
● Thursday will see Anglo American hold its AGM and release its first quarter results. The company was started in 1917 with £1m of capital, chiefly from UK and US sources, hence the name.
ECONOMICS NEWS
● On Monday, the European Commission will release statistics on the level of optimism consumers have about the performance of the Eurozone economy for April. Could make for depressing reading.
● Asking prices are up 1.7 per cent, says Rightmove’s UK House Prices Index for April, out today. Asking prices were up 0.8 per cent in March, but remember — asking isn’t selling. New listings were up 5 per cent year-on-year but still down 26 per cent on pre-crunch levels.
● On Wednesday, the Bank of England will release the MPC minutes for April. Any change in the voting pattern will put the cat among the pigeons for traders and commentators alike.
● On Friday, the Eurozone business confidence indicator survey for April will be released. Last month it remained unchanged at 6.6 per cent. Members of the monetary union will be hoping these figures remain positive.