Thursday preview: Fed's Powell, Rolls Royce in the spotlight

The market spotlight on Thursday will be on the US central bank and the start of its annual gathering of central banking experts from around the world at Jackson Hole, Wyoming,

In his keynote speech, Fed chairman Jerome Powell is expected to lay out the case for a policy of so-called inflation averaging, which entails maintaining easy monetary policy for longer.

Across the Channel meanwhile, the focus will be on the release of German retail sales figures for July and euro area money supply data covering that same month.

No major economic releases are scheduled in the UK.

Further afield, rate-setters in South Korea are expected to announce their latest policy decision.

Rolls Royce is among the top firms due to update shareholders on Thursday in the UK.

For the company's first half, UBS analyst Celine Fornaro forecasts that the engineer will post a 32% year-on-year drop in sales to reach £5.03bn.

She estimated that would result in a £199m group loss, including £300m of red ink at its aerospace arm and free cash flow guidance of -£3.0bn.

Among the key themes for the call with investors, Fornaro was expecting an update on the company's balance sheet review, trends in 2021/22 flying hours and on their impact on the company's legacy programmes, including the A330.

The analyst was also anticipating updates on asset impairments, on the implications of Roll's underlying performance for taxes and financial charges and as regards one-offs.

In its 9 July trading update, the firm reiterated guidance for original equipment manufacturing of 250 large engines.

It also said it had made "good" progress on its restructuring programme, having achieved £300m out of a projected £700m worth of measures during the half, alongside the start of its 9,000+ of job reductions.

The lion's share of the costs linked to the latter were expected to be booked in the final half of 2020 and 2021 (UBS: £200-300m).

Thursday 26 August

FINALS

Hays

INTERIMS

Anglo Pacific Group, Boston International Holdings, Grafton Group Ut, Macfarlane Group, PureTech Health, Rolls Royce, Total Produce, WPP

AGMs

Angle, Northern 3 VCT, Kodal Minerals, UK Commercial Property Reit Limited

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Halma, Henderson Smaller Companies Inv Trust, Downing One VCT, XPS Pensions Group

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Warehouse Reit, Bodycote, Personal Assets Trust, Anexo Group, JPMorgan American Inv Trust, Rights & Issues Inv Trust Income Shares, Aquila European Renewables Income Fund (GBP), JPMorgan Global Growth & Income, Ultra Electronics Holdings, PayPoint, Globaldata, LondonMetric Property, Persimmon, Aberdeen Emerging Markets Investment Company, Atlantis Japan Growth Fund Ltd., VPC Specialty Lending Investments, Carr's Group

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE

BlackRock World Mining Trust

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE

Tetragon Financial Group Limited

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

M3 Money Supply (EU) (09:00)

GDP (Preliminary) (US) (13:30)

Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)

Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)

Pending Homes Sales (US) (15:00)