Tuesday preview: US fiscal stimulus talks, Bellway in focus

Financial markets' focus at the start of the week will be on Capitol Hill and whether lawmakers from both sides of aisle can come together to agree on a new fiscal stimulus package.

Reports at the weekend appeared to indicate that the biggest stumbling block at the moment might be opposition from Republicans in the Senate, after the US President signalled he was open to a bigger package than even the Democrats had been holding out for.

Investors will also be closely monitoring the headlines around Brexit talks between Brussels and London.

No major economic releases are scheduled in the UK.

In terms of economic events, the spotlight will fall on rate-setters in Beijing as they meet to decided on policy.

For Bellway's full-year numbers which were due out on Tuesday, UBS's Anastasia Solonitsyna told clients the focus would be on the homebuilder's profits, current trends in activity and management's take on the outlook.

In part, that was because the firm had already reported on completions (7,500, down 31% on the year) and housing revenues (£2.2bn, down 31% on the year) at its pre-close trading update, in August.

Gross margin for the year was seen 6.1 percentage points lower at 18.3%, implying about a 16 point drop over the backhalf of the year to 7.8% as lockdowns dragged on productivity.

Before exceptionals she had penciled-in an operating loss of £8m for the last six months and of -£80m including one-offs.

In turn that meant that full-year margins fell from 21% in 2019 to 13%.

However, she believed sales rates had likely continued to improve from where they were at in July and that pricing was firm.

Stateside meanwhile, the market spotlight was likely to be on media giant Netflix, which was due to release quarterly earnings after the close of trading on Tuesday.

Tuesday 20 October

INTERIMS

TP Group

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Building Permits (US) (13:30)

Current Account (EU) (09:00)

GFK Consumer Confidence (GER) (07:00)

Housing Starts (US) (13:30)

Import Price Index (GER) (07:00)

Producer Price Index (GER) (07:00)

GMS

Thor Mining

FINALS

Bellway, Softcat, Transense Technologies

EGMS

Matomy Media Group Limited (DI)

AGMS

GRC International Group, NCC Group

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Luceco , Luceco