Thursday preview: Bank of England, Rolls Royce in the spotlight

Investors' focus on Thursday would be on the Bank of England.

Bank was scheduled to announce its latest policy decision at noon, but analysts were divided on whether it would hike rates by 25 or 50 basis points.

Against that backdrop, at 1330 BST financial markets' attention would turn towards the latest weekly unemployment figures in the U.S., followed by the Institute for Supply Management's July services sector Purchasing Managers' Index at 1500 BST.

Final readings for S&P Global's services PMIs for the euro area and the UK covering that same month were also scheduled for release, at 0900 BST and 0930 BST, respectively.

On the corporate side of things, it was Rolls Royce that would be in the spotlight, as the engineer published its second quarter earnings.

During the previous week, the company had raised its full-year guidance.

Underlying profits were seen coming in at £1.2-1.4bn and free cash flow at £0.9-1.1bn.

For the half, underlying profit was pegged at £600-680m thanks to the civil aviation and defence markets, which had bolstered its underlying profits.

"With the shares now back at pre-Covid levels, further progress is now likely to be predicated on progress on some its new business areas, like Small Modular reactor technology, which is currently operating at a loss, and is still in its infancy," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.

Stateside, all eyes would be on Amazon and Apple, which were due to report their latest quarterly earnings after the close of trading in New York.

Thursday 03 August

INTERIMS

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (DI), Helios Towers, Hellenic Telecom Industries SA ADS, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, IRISH RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES REIT P IRISH RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES ORD SHS, London Stock Exchange Group, Mears Group, Morgan Sindall Group, Quilter, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Serco Group, Shaftesbury Capital, Smith & Nephew, Tritax Big Box Reit

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

WH Smith

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust, Aptitude Software Group , Blackrock Throgmorton Trust, Foxtons Group , Inchcape, Jupiter Fund Management , Lloyds Banking Group, Mobico Group, Moneysupermarket.com Group, Nichols, Rathbones Group, Reckitt Benckiser Group, Relx plc, Rentokil Initial, RTC Group, Tyman, Vesuvius

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Brunner Inv Trust, Picton Property Income Ltd, Unilever

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)

Factory Orders (US) (15:00)

Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)

ISM Prices Paid (US) (15:00)

ISM Services (US) (15:00)

PMI Composite (EU) (09:00)

PMI Composite (GER) (08:55)

PMI Composite (US) (14:45)

PMI Services (EU) (09:00)

PMI Services (GER) (08:55)

PMI Services (US) (14:45)

Producer Price Index (EU) (10:00)

Q2

Hellenic Telecom Industries SA ADS, Smith & Nephew

FINALS

Omega Diagnostics Group

SPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust

SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Foresight VCT, Jupiter Fund Management , Latham (James)

EGMS

Landore Resources Limited NPV

AGMS

Caffyns, Distil, Edenville Energy , Investec, Ukrproduct Group Ltd

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Next, Smith & Nephew

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

BoE Interest Rate Decision (12:00)

PMI Composite (09:30)

PMI Services (09:30)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Caledonia Investments, GB Group

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

BT Group, CML Microsystems, Heath (Samuel) & Sons, Latham (James), Oxford Instruments, Triple Point Venture Vct

Q1

Wizz Air Holdings