Wednesday preview: Powell speech, British Land in the spotlight

The focus on Wednesday will be on a potentially noteworthy speech that Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome Powell, is scheduled to deliver before the Joint Economic Committee of the US Congress at 1600 GMT.

Ahead of that, investors will be waiting on consumer price figures in the UK covering the month of October, at 0930 GMT.

Economists at Barclays Research's forecast is for the year-on-year rate of headline inflation to have remained at 1.7%, the same level as in September, whereas the consensus is calling for a dip of one tenth of a percentage point to 1.6%.

At the core level on the other hand, Barclays anticipates an increase in CPI from August's pace of 1.7% to 1.9%, but the consensus expects it to be unchanged at 1.7%.

A reading on October CPI is also due out in the States, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics expected to report a headline and core rate of CPI of 1.7% (Septemebr: 1.7%) and 2.4% (September: 2.4%), respectively.

Across the Channel meanwhile, CPI readings are scheduled in Germany and Portugal as well.

Further afield, in New Zealand, overnight the country's central bank is widely anticipated to announce a cut in short-term official interest rates from 1.0% to 0.75%.

Among the key corporates due out with its latest results on Wednesday is property developer British Land.

Deutsche Bank's Osmaan Malik is expecting the company to report a 4.4% decline in its diluted net asset value for the first half of its financial year 2020 to reach 865.0p, led by an 11-13.0% drop in its retail assets, although development progress and planning permission at Canada Water were expected to act as a slight offset.

Earnings per share meanwhile were seen falling at a year-on-year pace of 5.0% to 16.4p, due in part to the disposal of Sainsbury stores in May and a rental impact of about £10.0m from CVAs.

In particular, the analysts said that he would be looking for an update on plans for retail disposals as the company reshapes its business and reduces the segment's contribution from 45.0% at present to approximately 30.0-35.0%.

Wednesday November 13

INTERIMS

Renold, Speedy Hire, SSE, Wincanton

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Consumer Price Index (GER) (07:00)

Consumer Price Index (US) (13:30)

Industrial Production (EU) (10:00)

MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)

Q3

Valeura Energy Inc NPV (DI)

FINALS

Avon Rubber

AGMS

Genesis Emerging Markets Fund Ltd Ptg NPV, Hays, JPMorgan Emerging Markets Inv Trust, London Finance & Investment Group

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Consumer Price Index (09:30)

Producer Price Index (09:30)

Retail Price Index (09:30)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

JPMorgan Emerging Markets Inv Trust, Redrow, Strategic Equity Capital