Thursday preview: Philly Fed index, Easyjet in the spotlight

The market spotlight will continue to focus on the US come Thursday.

Against the backdrop of the ongoing debt ceiling talks, at 1330 BST the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia would publish its closely followed regional factory index.

In parallel, the US Department of Labor was scheduled to release the latest weekly unemployment claims figures.

A full slate of Fed speakers also held the potential to move financial markets.

Fed Governor Philip Jefferson was expected to deliver remarks at 1405 BST, followed by fellow governor Michael Barr at 1430 BST and Dallas Fed chief Lorie Logan at 1500 BST.

On home shores, at 0845 BST, Bank of England chief economist was due to deliver the opening remarks at the CCBS Macro Finance workshop.

He would be followed at 1015 BST by Governor Andrew Bailey, who was set to testify before the Treasury Select Committee.

On the corporate side of things, Easyjet was due to report its first half results.

The latest guidance from the carrier is for a loss of approximately £400m, but for the full-year management was anticipating profits of £260m.

It also guided towards a 9% rise to 56m seats flown.

Group sales meanwhile were pegged to come in at about £2.69bn with costs of around £3.1bn due to dearer fuel.

Thursday 18 May

INTERIMS

Nexus Infrastructure , Tritax Eurobox (GBP)

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Barratt Developments

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE

BlackRock Greater Europe Inv Trust, Majedie Investments, Numis Corporation, Town Centre Securities

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE

M Winkworth

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE

BlackRock Sustainable American Income Trust, GSK, NextEnergy Solar Fund Limited Red, Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust , Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV, Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV (USD), TwentyFour Select Monthly Income Fund Limited , Unilever, Wheaton Precious Metals Corp.NPV (CDI)

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)

Existing Home Sales (US) (15:00)

Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)

Philadelphia Fed Index (US) (13:30)

Q4

BT Group

FINALS

Burberry Group, Investec, National Grid, Premier Foods

ANNUAL REPORT

Brighton Pier Group (The)

SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Elecosoft Public Limited Company

AGMS

Belvoir Group, Capital Limited (DI), Central Asia Metals, Ceres Power Holdings, Convatec Group , Diaceutics , Digital 9 Infrastructure NPV, Energean , Fintel, Genuit Group, Inchcape, JPMorgan American Inv Trust, Legal & General Group, Lloyds Banking Group, Merchants Trust, Michelmersh Brick Holdings, MusicMagpie, Network International Holdings, Next, Niox Group, PensionBee Group , Public Policy Holding Company, Inc. (DI) (REG S, CAT3), Quilter, Riverstone Credit Opportunities Income, Safestyle UK , Science Group , Science Group , Secure Trust Bank, Smart Metering Systems, Somero Enterprises Inc. (DI), St James's Place, Tyman, Unite Group, Vesuvius, Vistry Group , Yu Group

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

AIREA, Aviva, Morgan Sindall Group, Personal Group Holdings, Travis Perkins

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Advanced Medical Solutions Group, Balfour Beatty, BlackRock Smaller Companies Trust, Bunzl, Churchill China, Elecosoft Public Limited Company, Essentra, Fintel, H&T Group, Holders Technology, Irish Continental Group Units (Comp) (CDI), Ocean Wilsons Holdings Ltd., Pagegroup, Science Group , Spectris, Ten Entertainment Group , Vector Capital

Q1

Helios Towers