Wednesday preview: Trump's tax reveal follows GSK, StanChart starter

Wednesday will see a fairly busy day for corporate quarterly results, including GlaxoSmithKline and Standard Chartered, plus is the day when Donald Trump announced he will unveil his 'big tax reform'.

The tax reduction tweet from Trump over the weekend ramped up the anticipation for markets that have been waiting for these reforms for a long time now, said FXTM strategist Hussein Sayed, with most of the gains in U.S. equities were built on these promises.

"The 100th day of Trump's presidency will be on Saturday, 29 April, and so far, he struggled to advance on most of his campaign promises. Will he finally deliver?

"I think next week is going to be a crucial test for the new U.S. administration, especially now that markets have grown skeptical of its ability to deliver. U.S. stock indices closed slightly lower on Friday, in a sign that Trump comments are no longer effective. However, if the President’s proposed reforms were reasonable and can pass the Congress, there’s a high chance for equities rally to revive."

GSK, StanChart LSE, Croda results

GlaxoSmithKline's new chief executive will be reporting results for the first time Emma Walmsley, following the retirement of Sir Andrew Witty, who had been under pressure to break up the company amid disappointing performance.

Russ Mould at AJ Bell said analysts will also be looking for news of the drug development pipeline and that "earnings momentum seemed to improve in 2016 so that may alleviate any pressure on Walmsley to act quickly, if at all".

For the full year GSK has guided that core earnings per share will fall by 5-7%, assuming no generic competition to prescription asthma treatment Advair launches in the USA, or come in flat to slightly down in the event a rival or generic drug is approved. The drugmaker has also suggested its regular dividend will be unchanged, meaning the first payment is likely to be unchanged at 19p.

UBS estimated Q1 sales of £7.3bn, core operating profit of £1.88bn and core EPS 24p.

Deutsche Bank expects roughly 3% quarterly revenue growth at constant exchange rates, or 16% at the reported level and with underlying margin improvements now slowing, DB forecast EPS growth of 7% at CER and 26% reported, at the upper end of guidance for the full year given phasing of cost savings through 2016.

"We expect guidance to be reiterated despite a delay to Mylan's generic Advair, with launches still possible by mid year. This is likely to largely neutralise FY growth."

While Standard Chartered has stabilised income and credit quality, the Asia-focused bank is forecast to endure falling earnings this year.

It needs to start delivering growth, analysts at Barclays said. "We expect income to grow modestly from Q4 and see the outlook for the rest of the year as a key area of focus," they wrote, adding that costs should reduce significantly as the UK bank levy drops away.

UBS said management credibility depended to an extent on hitting the costs targeted that were reiterated recently, with group income momentum boosted by gearing to higher US$-linked interest rates.

Over at Croda, Barclays said its trading statement should be a further indicator of its analysts' view that underlying growth is the process of reaccelerating, forecasting an underlying rate of growth of 2.2% that would be a meaningful improvement from the 1.6% fall last year.

With London Stock Exchange Group reporting for the first time since the EU blocked the proposed merger with Deutsche Boerse, investors will be keen for management to comment on standalone strategy going forwards and perhaps announce an investor day in the coming weeks, Barclays added.

The first three months of the year is CRH's smallest volume quarter and the building materials group is expected to report Q1 LFL sales down year on year given a challenging comparison basis in 2016 when favourable weather conditions boosted the US.

For the first half as a whole UBS said it expected CRH to guide to group organic sales growth and EBITDA of around €1.2bn up from €1.12bn after charging €30m of restructuring costs, implying around 3% underlying EBITDA growth.

"We do not expect a change in outlook at this stage which is for growth across both North America and Europe."

Wednesday 26 April

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Crude Oil Inventories (US) (15:30)

FINALS
Boohoo.com, GAN, Walker Greenbank

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
CRH, Croda International, GKN, GlaxoSmithKline, Jupiter, London Stock Exchange, Metro Bank, Punch Taverns Standard Chartered, Tullow Oil

INTERIMS
Proactis Holdings, Redefine International, Redefine International

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Close Brothers Group

ANNUAL REPORT
HSS Hire Group

AGMS
Admiral Group, Bank of America Corp., Bioquell, British American Tobacco, CLS Holdings, Croda International, Devro, Fidessa Group, Glanbia, Global Invacom Group Limited (DI), Greencoat UK Wind, Henderson Diversified Income Ltd., Henderson Group, JPMorgan US Smaller Co. Inv Tst, Kennedy Wilson Europe Real Estate , Mithras Inv Trust, Nichols, Personal Group Holdings, Petards Group, Primary Health Properties, Schroder Asian Total Return Investment Company , Schroder Asian Total Return Investment Company , Telit Communications, Tullow Oil, Venn Life Sciences Holdings

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Shore Capital Group Ltd.