Wednesday preview: US housing, Melrose in focus

The economic calendar will be exceptionally light once again on Wednesday.

In the States, the housing sector will once again be in focus, as the Department of Commerce releases existing home sales data for the month of June.

An hour before, the Federal Housing Finance Agency will release its home price index for May.

Yet no major economic releases are scheduled in the UK, euro area or out of Asia.

Also in the US, a raft of company reports are due out after the close of trading in New York, not least from Microsoft and Tesla.

For turnaround specialist Melrose's first half trading update, UBS analyst Celine Fonaro had modelled revenues of £4,351m, for operating profits of £156m.

Looking out to the backhalf of the year, Fornaro had penciled-in £4,456m and £259m, respectively.

Included in her first half estimates was a £200m drag from restructuring charges in large engine aerospace programmes, but the analyst noted that the final figure might be worse.

Indeed top line growth in Aerospace was pegged at -25% for the half and seen dropping by 45% over the subsequent six months.

The bottom line was that while the unit would record £75.8m of profits in the half just ended, that would morph into £19m of red ink in the final six months of 2020.

Driveline revenues meanwhile were seen 30-35% lower in the first six months of the year and expected to drop by a further 20% in the second half.

Fornaro was also expecting updates on Melrose's rate of 'cash burn', on restructuring costs and benefits and on business trends.

"Any commentary around the Autos & Nortek businesses, 2H revenues trends/ orders/ cash would help."

Consumer goods giant Unilever is also due to update investors on its first half performance, with Michael Hewson at CMC Markets UK cautioning investors that its solid first quarter showing in the US is very likely to have been repeated.

However, the firm did stick by its dividend on that ocassion and further news on the decision to make London its main headquarters in a bid to slash costs may be forthcoming.

On a slightly positive note, its sales in Asia had already taken a hit during the preceding quarter.

Wednesday 22 July

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Crude Oil Inventories (US) (15:30)

Existing Home Sales (US) (15:00)

House Price Index (US) (14:00)

MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)

FINALS

GYG, Knights Group Holdings , Stagecoach Group

AGMS

Aberdeen Asian Income Fund Ltd., Anexo Group , Experian, HarbourVest Global Private Equity Limited A Shs, Lenta GDR (Each 5 Repr 1 Ord EUR0.001) (Reg S), LondonMetric Property, Maven Income & Growth VCT, Mediclinic International , President Energy, Wincanton

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Close Brothers Group, Eve Sleep PLC, Tristel, Melrose, Unilever