Tuesday preview: Parliament and Morrisons in the spotlight

All eyes will be on Parliament today, with MPs set to vote on two ammendments to the Finance Bill which may result in gridlock in Whitehall, by forcing the Prime Minister to obtain their approval on any deal as well as any 'no deal' by in effect taking away the Treasury's no-deal powers.

Over on the Continent, the focus will be on German industrial production figures for November and the results of the European Commission's economic confidence surveys covering the month of December.

Meanwhile, in the US, the main economic report of the session will be a reading on November's international trade deficit.

It will be followed by the NFIB's small business confidence and the Federal Reserve's JOLTS labour market survey.

Among the companies that are set to update investors is Morrisons with the grocer set to report on the nine weeks of trading until 6 January.

ShoreCap's Clive Black expected trading to have been "robust", but difficult comparators for the Christmas period and "very slow" industry-wide conditions in October and November meant that like-for-like sales growth in Retail may have slowed-down to a pace of between 0.0-0.5%, he said.

In a research note sent to clients, Black stuck by a forecast for full-year pr-tax profits of £412m, which would represent growth of 11% in the company's earnings per share.

"More to the point Morrisons' defensive qualities are high with its strong balance sheet whilst progressive ordinary and a recurring special dividend make for attractive income credentials."

Also due to come out with a trading statement is SIG.

Howard Seymour at Numis is expecting little change versus the trends that were visible at the time of the company's update in November, although the outlook in its main European market, France, will not have been helped by the recent riots.

Indeed, continued macro weakness will likely offset management actions to exit low gross margin businesses, so there is scope for downgrades, Seymour said.

"Not an expensive stock, but one where downside risks remain and not favoured in sector."

Tuesday January 08

INTERIMS

Gateley (Holdings)

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Yu Group

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Balance of Trade (US) (13:30)

Business Climate Indicator (EU) (10:00)

Consumer Credit (US) (20:00)

Factory Orders (GER) (07:00)

Industrial Confidence (EU) (10:00)

Industrial Production (GER) (07:00)

Services Confidence (EU) (10:00)

AGMS

Salvarx Group

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Greene King, SIG

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Halifax House Price Index (08:00)