Wednesday preview: US presidential debate, Dunelm in the spotlight

Overnight on Wednesday investors will be closely watching the televised US presidential debate.

At 0200 BST Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will face off in what may be their only debate before the elections in November.

Some of the latest polls indicated that they were running neck and neck, such that the debate could conceivably give either a candidate that much needed boost.

Against that backdrop, at 1230 BST the US Department of Labor was expected to announce that the headline rate of increase in consumer prices had fallen from 2.9% in July to 2.6% for August - which would constitute a hefty drop.

Core CPI on the other hand was expected to be unchanged at 3.2% year-on-year.

For some observers, Wednesday's US CPI numbers could decide whether the Federal Reserve opted for a 25 basis point or 50bp rate cut on 18 September.

In the UK, at 0600 BST the Office for National Statistics would release its estimate for gross domestic product growth in July.

Dunelm is among the few corporate names due to release results on Wednesday.

The furniture retailer had recently published its fourth quarter sales and pointed towards full-year profit before tax "slightly ahead" of consensus for £200m.

Thus, in the opinion of UBS analyst Antonio Tabet, what would now matter most to investors is what the company had to say concerning its fiscal year 2025 profits and its gross margins and operating costs.

Linked to the above, Tabet reminded clients that Dunelm was facing potential freight pressures and a roughly 10% jump in the National Living Wage.

The VA consensus was FY25 profit before tax of £216m with gross margins narrowing by 30 basis points and opex by 40bp.