Wednesday preview: Autumn Statement, Kingfisher in focus

Investors' focus on Wednesday will be on the Chancellor's Autumn statement, with the most recent economic data showing that he had approximately £90bn of leeway to tweak fiscal policy.

According to Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, tax cuts were unlikely.

But the possibility did exist that the government might try and help struggling businesses by extending full expensing beyond the currently anticipated end date of 2026.

Other possibilities included tweaks to pensions or stamp duty, as well as a shake-up of ISAs in order to boost domestic investment in the UK stock market and changes to fuel and tobacco duty, Hewson said.

In the U.S. meanwhile, a raft of economic indicators are due out.

Chief among those will be the final results of the University of Michigan's consumer confidence index covering the month of November at 1500 GMT.

In particular, investors will be looking to see if preliminary readings showing a sharp increase in inflation expectations are revised down.

Also due out, at 1330 GMT the Department of Labor will publish the latest weekly unemployment figures, while the Department of Commerce will release its report on durable goods orders for October.

Across the Channel meanwhile, at 1500 GMT Eurostat will publish the preliminary results for its euro area consumer confidence survey in November.

No major reports are scheduled for release in the UK.

On the corporate side of things, Kingfisher will report on its third quarter.

At the time of its first half results, the home improvement outfit projected a 2.4% like-for-like drop in sales and predicted that full-year profit would reach £590m.

The latter was down from a previous forecast for £634m.

Wednesday 08 November

INTERIMS

Marks & Spencer Group

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Mobeus Income & Growth 2 Vct

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Consumer Price Index (GER) (07:00)

Crude Oil Inventories (US) (15:30)

MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)

Retail Sales (EU) (10:00)

Wholesales Inventories (US) (15:00)

GMS

Superdry

FINALS

Smiths News , Time Out Group

AGMS

JPMorgan Emerging Markets Inv Trust

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Hiscox Limited (DI), ITV

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Manchester & London Investment Trust