Wednesday preview: US Federal Reserve, Next in the spotlight

All eyes will be on the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday with the central bank expected to announce the start to tapering of its asset purchases.

The Fed is seen slowing its monthly purchases of Treasuries and agency mortgage backed securities by $15bn and to make a clear distinction between tapering and interest rate hikes.

Nevertheless, Barclays Research, for one, is not expecting the Fed to push back strongly against market pricing, which at last count was discounting about 50 basis points' worth of hikes in the back half of 2022.

Scheduled for release ahead of the announcement of the Fed's rate decision, which will take place after the close of trading in London, are readings for private sector jobs and US services in October and for durable goods orders in September.

On home shores meanwhile, at 0930 GMT, IHS Markit will publish its services sector Purchasing Managers' Index for October.

In parallel, mortgage lender Nationwide will publish the results of its house price survey for October.

Across the Channel, Eurostat will release unemployment data referencing the month of September.

In Asia, rate-setters in Malaysia will meet to decide on interest rates with no change anticipated.

On the company front, Next is among the names that are due to update investors.

The last time around, in September, the online retailer marked up its full-year profit guidance for a fourth time this year to £800m - a five-year high.

But as Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK notes, the company's boss, Lord Simon Wolfson, also cautioned at the time that costs were rising and staffing short in some areas of the business.

That could prolong its delivery times in the run-up to Christmas and costs might well be headed higher due to more expensive warehouse, he added.

For her part, UBS analyst Olivia Townsend had penciled-in a 44% jump in full-price online sales for the retailer's third quarter on a two-year basis, alongside a 3% drop in Retail and a 6% decline in France.

On the bottom line, Townsend had estimated full-year profit of £820m and said that neither she nor investors - as per her conversations with them - were for the most part not anticipating another guidance upgrade.

According to Townsend, the fourth quarter offered the largest scope for an upgrade, given that it tended to be the company's best selling season.

Wednesday 03 November

INTERIMS

Braemar Shipping Services, Esken Limited, Trainline

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Crude Oil Inventories (US) (14:30)

Factory Orders (US) (14:00)

ISM Prices Paid (US) (15:00)

ISM Services (US) (15:00)

MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (11:00)

PMI Composite (GER) (08:55)

PMI Composite (US) (14:45)

PMI Services (GER) (08:55)

PMI Services (US) (14:45)

Unemployment Rate (EU) (09:00)

Q3

Amryt Pharma

FINALS

Nanoco Group

AGMS

Hansard Global, Manchester & London Investment Trust

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

AIB Group (CDI), Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI), Ibstock , Next, Smurfit Kappa Group (CDI)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Mattioli Woods