Thursday preview: ECB, US-China trade firmly in focus

The market spotlight on Thursday will be firmly on the European Central Bank, as rate-setters in Frankfurt present the latest staff macroeconomic projections, possibly setting the stage for a new package of medium-term loans for the bloc's banking sector to be unveiled.

For the most part, economists do not appear to be expecting such an announcement on Thursday, although any of the subsequent meetings of the Governing Council are considered to be likely potential candidates.

However, on Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported that the ECB will cut its outlook for growth by enough to support calls for a fresh round of so-called Targeted Long-Term Refinance Operations.

Readings from Eurostat on fourth quarter GDP and employment are also due out.

Meanwhile, in the States, data are due out on weekly jobless claims, alongside readings for labour productivity and unit labour costs covering the fourth quarter.

Further afield, in China, the country's central bank is due to publish foreign exchange reserves data for the month of February.

Investors will also be keeping an eye out for any fresh headlines around the ongoing US-China trade talks.

Another wave of corporate results is set to crash into investors on Thursday, including full-year figures from the likes of Premier Oil and Schroders.

Numis analyst Thomas Martin expects the explorer's management to focus on the Zama appraisal programme and recently pointed out to clients that the company did a poor job of communicating on the initial results, back in late January.

Indeed, management appeared to have sold short the results of the drilling.

Consensus is projecting $2.38bn for the company's net debt.

For fund manager Schroders meanwhile, consensus has penciled-in full year assets under management of £413.3bn on -£4.6bn of net outflows over the second half, entirely accounted for by Intermediary (-£4.8bn).

Earnings per share meanwhile are pegged at 216p, down from 2017's level of 224p, but the payout per share is seen steady at 113p.

"We continue to regard Schroders as a core sector holding for the long term," said Numis's David McCann.

"We continue to think that it is during difficult market conditions when Schroders' defensive qualities (relative to the sector) will shine through."

Thursday March 07

INTERIMS

Inland Homes

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Ashmore Group, Beeks Financial Cloud Group, BHP Group, City of London Investment Group, Dechra Pharmaceuticals, Draper Esprit VCT, Evraz, Genus, Green Reit, Grit Real Estate Income Group Limited NPV (DI), Hays, Hotel Chocolat Group , Joules Group, MJ Gleeson , Redrow, Renishaw, South32 Limited (DI) , Springfield Properties , Volta Finance Limited NPV (GBP), Wilmington

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Aberdeen Diversified Income and Growth Trust , Diversified Gas & Oil, Honeycomb Investment Trust, Premier Global Infrastructure Trust, Raven Property Group 6.5% Red Cnv Pref Shs NPV, Real Estate Credit Investments Ltd, RM Secured Direct Lending, SQN Secured Income Fund , UIL Limited (DI), Volta Finance Limited

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Balance of Trade (US) (13:30)

Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)

ECB Interest Rate (EU) (12:45)

Gross Domestic Product (EU) (10:00)

Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)

FINALS

Admiral Group, AIREA, Alfa Financial Software Holdings , Aviva, Cairn Homes , Cobham, Countrywide, Funding Circle Holdings , Greggs, IndigoVision Group, Informa, Inmarsat, NMC Health, Spirent Communications

SPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust

SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

City of London Investment Group, LXB Retail Properties, Persimmon, Rio Tinto, South32 Limited (DI)

AGMS

Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. GDR (Reg S), Impax Asset Management Group, Shoe Zone

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Halifax House Price Index (08:30)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust, Oxford Metrics

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

CareTech Holding, Chrysalis VCT, Grafton Group Units, LPA Group, Redde, Rio Tinto, RSA Ins 7 3/8%pf, RSA Insurance Group, Safestore Holdings, St. Modwen Properties, Standard Chartered, Temple Bar Inv Trust