Thursday preview: Bank of England, Next in focus

The market spotlight on Thursday will be firmly on the Bank of England.

Its Monetary Policy Committee is not expected to make any changes to the current policy settings, but analysts at Barclays do expected its members will strike a less optimistic tone and that two of its members will vote for an increase in the size of the central bank's quantitative easing programme.

Stateside meanwhile, the focus will be again the on the latest batch of weekly jobless claims figures, this time alongside the Philly Fed's regional factory sector survey referencing the month of September.

A final reading on euro area consumer price data for August is also due out.

Further afield, rate-setters in Indonesia and Taiwan will meet to decide on interest rates.

For Next's first half results, UBS analysts are keen for any guidance from the management as regards the full-year outlook and updated scenarios analyses for the next financial year.

Any comments or figures around sales exit rates in both online and retail would also be welcome, they said, as well as regards return rates in the digital channel.

Thursday 17 September

INTERIMS

Destiny Pharma , Hilton Food Group, Keywords Studios, Next, Oxford Biomedica, Playtech, Safestyle UK , Spire Healthcare Group, WANdisco

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Rio Tinto

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Henry Boot, International Public Partnerships Ltd., Intertek Group, Nucleus Financial Group , Sanne Group, Up Global Sourcing Holdings

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Building Permits (US) (13:30)

Consumer Price Index (EU) (10:00)

Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)

Housing Starts (US) (13:30)

Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)

GMS

Hostelworld Group , Secured Income Fund

FINALS

Clinigen Group, Duke Royalty Limited, Supermarket Income Reit, Thinksmart Limited (DI), Wilmington

ANNUAL REPORT

SRT Marine Systems

AGMS

Begbies Traynor Group, FastForward Innovations Limited, FIH Group , Gresham House Strategic , IG Group Holdings, JPMorgan Brazil Inv Trust , Real Estate Credit Investments Ltd, Ryanair Holdings, Trakm8 Holdings

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

BoE Interest Rate Decision (12:00)

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Best of the Best, Hargreaves Services, Totally, UniVision Engineering Ltd.