Wednesday preview: Davos, Burberry Group in focus

The focus around the world on Wednesday will continue to be on the World Economic Forum in Davos.

In the UK meanwhile, the spotlight will fall on public sector borrowing figures for December at 0930 GMT, followed by the Confederation of British Industry's industrial trends survey for January at 1100 GMT.

Later in the session, investors' attention will shift to the US housing sector, the Federal Housing and Finance Administration's monthly House Price Index set to published at 1500 GMT and existing home sales data for December at 1600 GMT.

Burberry Group may surprise positively on Wednesday with its third quarter trading update, according to Morgan Stanley.

Consensus was for the soft luxury player to report a slowdown in its like-for-like from the 5.0% pace observed over the three months to September to 2.0%, with weakness in Hong Kong expected to be a chief factor behind the soft numbers.

But in a research note sent to clients, Morgan Stanley said that its discussions with Burberry's peers and "industry players" appeared to show that activity had picked up in the sector towards the end of the quarter, with easy comparables expected to have benefited France in particular.

"This leads us to believe that the risk-reward should be positively skewed for Burberry into the release: with the penetration of the Tisci collection approaching 80%, no meaningful exposure to Japan (which should slow down sector-wise in the quarter) and a potential acceleration in European sales, we believe LFL could exceed consensus, and we set our estimate at 3% (with some potential upside risk to this figure)," analysts Elena Mariani and Edouard Aubin said in a research note sent to clients.

Unfortunately they added that "we believe that most investors have positive expectations into results."

Wednesday 22 January

INTERIMS

Van Elle Holdings

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Existing Home Sales (US) (15:00)

House Price Index (US) (14:00)

MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)

SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Prime People

AGMS

AJ Bell, Edinburgh Worldwide Inv Trust, Topps Tiles, Tracsis

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Antofagasta, Burberry Group, Close Brothers Group, Forterra, Sage Group, WH Smith, William Hill

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

CBI Industrial Trends Surveys (11:00)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Diploma