Thursday preview: Jackson Hole Symposium, German business confidence in focus

All eyes on Thursday will be on the start of the central banking symposium at Jackson Hole, Wyoming (U.S.A.), as investors search for guidance on the path that monetary policy will follow in 2023.

In recent weeks, market commentary appeared to have progressively coalesced around the view that interest rates would need to remain higher for longer and that US Federal Reserve President, Jerome Powell, would need to use his speech on Friday to drive that point home.

Nevertheless, there were still analysts who believed Powell would be quite nuanced, enough so to support equity markets.

For his part, Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda, said: "Investors have repeatedly turned a blind eye to Fed commentary since the last meeting which has enabled stock markets to recover a lot of lost ground.

"It's always hard to say how long that will last and whether it will continue as markets have spent much of the last year not on the same page as the Fed and as it's turned out, for good reason.

"Any trepidation now may simply be a case of groundwork being laid for another rally later if Powell is deemed to be remotely dovish on Friday, intentionally or otherwise."

Against that backdrop, the latest US weekly jobless claims figures and a revised reading for second quarter GDP will both be forthcoming at 1330 BST.

Across the Channel, in Germany, at 0900 BST the IFO institute will publish the results of its business confidence survey for August.

On home shores meanwhile, at 1100 BST the Confederation of British Industry will release the results of its distributive trades survey covering the month of August.

Further afield, in South Korea, central bankers will meet to decide on policy.

Economists' forecasts are calling for a 25 basis point hike in the seven-day repurchase rate to 2.50%.

Thursday 25 August

INTERIMS

Anglo Pacific Group, CRH (CDI), Faron Pharmaceuticals Oy (DI), Grafton Group Ut (CDI), Hunting, Macfarlane Group, PureTech Health

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Schroders, Schroders (Non-Voting)

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Arbuthnot Banking Group, Breedon Group , Capital & Counties Properties , Convatec Group , Drax Group, FDM Group (Holdings), Foxtons Group , Glanbia (CDI), Mondi, NATWEST GROUP PLC ORD 100P, OSB Group , Phoenix Group Holdings , Plus500 Ltd (DI), RHI Magnesita N.V. (DI), Rights & Issues Investment Trust , Scotgems, Secure Trust Bank, Sherborne Investors (Guernsey) C Limited NPV, St James's Place

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE

Tetragon Financial Group Limited

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE

ContourGlobal , HICL Infrastructure , Land Securities Group, NB Global Monthly Income Fund Limited Red Ord Shs NPV £, Wheaton Precious Metals Corp.NPV (CDI)

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)

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

Gross Domestic Product (GER) (07:00)

IFO Business Climate (GER) (09:00)

IFO Current Assessment (GER) (09:00)

IFO Expectations (GER) (09:00)

Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)

Q3

Benchmark Holdings

GMS

NATWEST GROUP PLC ORD 100P

FINALS

Hays, Morses Club

AGMS

Nuformix, Triple Point Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Company

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

QinetiQ Group

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Appreciate Group, Argentex Group , Auto Trader Group , Biffa, Brickability Group , Cake Box Holdings, Cohort, Diageo, First Property Group, Henderson Smaller Companies Inv Trust, LendInvest , XPS Pensions Group