Thursday preview: US non-farm payrolls, SSP in focus

The market spotlight on Thursday will be firmly on the US jobs market, with both weekly and monthly data set to coincide ahead of the 4 July holiday which would be observed during the following day.

Initial weekly jobless claims figures are expected to reveal a further slight improvement to 1.341m, down from the 1.480m job losses reported for the prior reference week.

Non-farm payrolls meanwhile are seen printing at up by 3.0m for June following a 2.51m rise in May, with the rate of unemployment set to fall from 13.3% to 12.5% alongside.

Readings on US foreign trade and factory orders for May are also due out.

Across the Channel meanwhile, the focus will be on euro area producer price and unemployment data for May.

Yet perhaps the most interesting events will be two speeches from European Central Bank governing council members Yves Mersch and Isabel Schnabel.

On the corporate front in the UK, investors will be waiting on guidance out of packaging specialist DS Smith, including for its dividend.

For the backhalf of DS Smith's financial year ending in April, UBS analyst Mikael Doepel had penciled-in flat revenues of £3,101m for adjusted earnings before interest, tax and amortisation of £297.0m.

For the full year, the consensus was anticipating EBITA of £665.0m, which led Doepel to estimate that second half profits were seen coming in at about £314.0m.

His EBITA estimate for the 2020/21 financial year was even further below the consensus, at £457m, against £646m for his peers, which he ascribed to the fact that the latter were not fully factoring the current macroeconomic backdrop nor the resulting price pressures.

Doepel expected DS Smith to announce a 11.3p per share dividend payout for the last six months of 2020.

Thursday 02 July

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Cardiff Property, Pacific Assets Trust

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE

BP 8% Cum 1st Prf, BP 9% 2nd Prf, British Smaller Companies VCT, CC Japan Income & Growth Trust, Hargreave Hale AIM VCT , Treatt, Zegona Communications

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Anglo Pacific Group, BMO UK High Income Trust , Primary Health Properties, Real Estate Credit Investments Ltd, Scottish Inv Trust, Volta Finance Limited NPV (GBP)

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Balance of Trade (US) (13:30)

Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)

Factory Orders (US) (15:00)

Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)

Non-Farm Payrolls (US) (13:30)

Producer Price Index (EU) (10:00)

Unemployment Rate (EU) (10:00)

Unemployment Rate (US) (13:30)

FINALS

Smith (DS)

SPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Tandem Group

SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

BMO UK High Income Trust B Shares, Record

EGMS

XLMedia

AGMS

Concepta, EJF Investments Ltd NPV, JPMorgan Multi-Asset Trust, Sainsbury (J)

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Meggitt

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Cenkos Securities, Ferrexpo, Tandem Group

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Aberdeen Japan Investment Trust , Airtel Africa , Anglo Asian Mining, Calculus VCT , Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI), Hibernia Reit , Homeserve, ICG Enterprise Trust, iEnergizer Ltd., Maven Income & Growth VCT, National Grid, Record, Workspace Group