Tuesday preview: US Q2 unit labour costs, IHG in focus

The market spotlight on Tuesday will be on quarterly labour productivity and unit labour cost data in the US covering the three months to June.

Consensus is for quarterly annualised growth in the latter, a widely-followed gauge of wage pressures in the jobs market, to have slowed from the 12.6% pace seen over the first quarter to 9.9%.

Also due out is a reading on the National Federation of Independent Businesses' small business optimism index for July.

No major economic reports are due to be published in the UK nor in the euro area, although Greek CPI for July are due out at 1000 BST.

Further afield, in China, money supply covering the month of July may be released.

In the background, investors and traders will be keeping a close eye on the headlines around the war in Ukraine and tensions in the Taiwan Strait.

For InterContinental Hotels Group's first half numbers, investors will be focusing on the company's continued progress in recovering from the pandemic.

The shares have rallied from the two-year lows hit back in June and are again within striking distance of their all-time highs.

The Holiday Inn owner reported that revenues per available room reached 82% of their 2019 levels during the first quarter with the US business leading the way, while the Greater China region was a drag.

"The US outlook looks the most promising in terms of increased pricing power, with rates in the US business 4% ahead of 2019 levels in Q1, and likely to remain so despite concerns over the rising cost of living," Michael Hewson chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK said.

Tuesday 2 August

FINALS

NWF Group

INTERIMS

Standard Chartered, Rotork, Braveheart Investment Group, BP, Fresnillo, Keller Group, Greggs, Travis Perkins

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

TR Property Inv Trust, Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI), Tatton Asset Management, Johnson Matthey, Discoverie Group

AGMs

Syncona Limited NPV, Caffyns, Tanfield Group