Friday preview: US consumer confidence, bank earnings in the spotlight

All eyes at the end of the week would continue to be on the preliminary results of the University of Michigan's consumer confidence survey for the month of January.

Worth noting, they would include readings on the closely followed gauges for inflation expectations contained in the same.

As Greg Ip pointed out overnight in the Wall Street Journal, expectations are one of the key determinants of underlying inflation.

Also due out Stateside, albeit 90 minutes earlier, were import price data covering the last month of 2020.

Overnight meanwhile, China's customs administration was to release foreign trade numbers for December with economists anticipating a deficit of $78.0bn versus $69.3bn in October.

Also out of Asia, rate-setters in Seoul were expected to lift their seven-day repo rate by 25 basis points to 3.50%.

Against that backdrop, at 0700 GMT the Office for National Statistics would publish the latest monthly gross domestic product growth figures in the UK.

ONS was expected to report that the economy shrank at a month-on-month pace of 0.3% in November after expanding by 0.5% in October.

The index of services was seen down by 0.2% on the month, alongside 0.3% drops for industrial and construction output.

In the euro area, final readings for French and Spanish consumer prices were set for release towards the start of the European trading session, as were euro area industrial production figures for November at 1100 GMT.

Later in the day, towards noon in London, Bank of America, Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase would kick off the fourth quarter earnings season on Wall Street.

BofA and Citi shares were coming off a poor 2022, JP Morgan less so, with analysts apparently increasingly confident that the rate hiking cycle in the US had entered its last innings.

Against that backdrop, dealmaking was expected to have remained poor, although investors would also be looking to lenders' provisioning for insights into management teams' expectations for the year just started.

Guidance on share buybacks was also expected to be key.

Consensus estimates for the three lenders' quarterly earnings per share were at $0.82, $1.30 and $3.12, respectively.

Friday 13 January

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Cropper (James), Devro, Discoverie Group, FIH Group , Helical, MS International, Northern 2 VCT, Northern 3 VCT, Oxford Instruments, PHSC, Redde Northgate, Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies Trust, Supreme , Triad Group

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE

Tritax Eurobox (EUR), Tritax Eurobox (GBP), Yamana Gold Inc. NPV (CDI)

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Balance of Trade (EU) (10:00)

Import and Export Price Indices (US) (13:30)

Industrial Production (EU) (10:00)

U. of Michigan Confidence (Prelim) (US) (15:00)

GMS

eEnergy Group

SPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

New Century AIM VCT

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

MJ Gleeson , Taylor Wimpey

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Balance of Trade (07:00)

Gross Domestic Product (07:00)

Index of Services (07:00)

Industrial Production (07:00)

Manufacturing Production (07:00)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Associated British Foods

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Leeds Building Society 13 3/8% Bearing Shares