Week ahead: US-China trade talks, central banks in the spotlight
The markets' focus over the coming week will be on the continuing trade talks between the US and China, in Washington D.C..
Negotiations over the previous week were described by the US President himself as "productive" and according to reports, Donald Trump was now considering a 60-day extension to the deadline for a deal to be reached before hiking America's trade tariffs on China yet again.
There was also talk that the two negotiating teams were aiming to reach a Memorandum of Understanding of sorts, although some analysts had pointed out that China had often ignored such agreements.
Against that backdrop, central banks will again be in focus, with the minutes of the US central bank's last policy meeting set for release on Wednesday, followed by a raft of Fed speakers on Friday, most of whom will be speaking from New York with the main topic set to be the future of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet.
There is also a fair bit of interest in this week's speeches by European Central Bank officials, including various by its chief economist, Peter Praet, starting from Tuesday.
ECB chief, Mario Draghi, is also on the speech calendar, for Friday.
IHS Markit's 'flash' Purchasing Managers' Indices for the euro area's service and manufacturing sevrice sectors, covering the month of February, are also due to be published, on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the ZEW and IFO institutes will release their closely-followed economic and business confidence surveys on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively.
In the UK, the main data point will be Tuesday's monthly employment report.
A raft of key economic indicators is also due out over the course of the week in Japan, including figures on 'core' machinery orders (Monday), international trade (Wednesday), All-industry activity index (December) and 'core' CPI (January).
Monday February 18
INTERIMS
City of London Investment Group, PCI-PAL, Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI)
FINALS
McColl's Retail Group , Reckitt Benckiser Group
TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Reckitt Benckiser Group
FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Paragon Banking Group
Tuesday February 19
INTERIMS
BHP Group, Blancco Technology Group, DotDigital Group
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
ZEW Survey (EU) - Economic Sentiment (10:00)
ZEW Survey (GER) - Current Situation (10:00)
ZEW Survey (GER) - Economic Sentiment (10:00)
Q4
Bank of Georgia Group
GMS
Low & Bonar
FINALS
Bank of Georgia Group, HSBC Holdings, InterContinental Hotels Group, Spectris
TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Walker Greenbank
UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
CBI Industrial Trends Surveys (11:00)
Claimant Count Rate (08:30)
Wednesday February 20
INTERIMS
Pan African Resources
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Building Permits (US) (13:30)
Current Account (EU) (09:00)
Housing Starts (US) (13:30)
MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)
Producer Price Index (GER) (07:00)
FINALS
Glencore , Hochschild Mining, Intu Properties, Lloyds Banking Group, Temple Bar Inv Trust
ANNUAL REPORT
Intu Properties
AGMS
Gooch & Housego, Titon Holdings
TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Gooch & Housego
Thursday February 21
INTERIMS
Avation, Go-Ahead Group, Hays, InnovaDerma, Mcbride, Wilmington
INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Ramsdens Holdings
INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Heath (Samuel) & Sons, Mobeus Income & Growth 2 Vct
QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Aberdeen Standard Equity Income Trust , Carnival, GlaxoSmithKline, HICL Infrastructure Company Ltd, NextEnergy Solar Fund Limited Red, Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV, Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV (USD)
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Consumer Price Index (GER) (13:00)
Consumer Price Index (GER) (07:00)
Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)
Existing Home Sales (US) (15:00)
Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)
Q4
Hellenic Telecom Industries SA ADS
FINALS
Anglo American, BAE Systems, Barclays, Centrica, Georgia Capital , Hellenic Telecom Industries SA ADS, Kaz Minerals , Macfarlane Group, Morgan Sindall Group, Playtech, Rathbone Brothers, Relx plc, RPS Group, Serco Group, TBC Bank Group, Telecom Egypt SAE GDS (Regs), Vitec Group
SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Independent Inv Trust
AGMS
CSF Group, IntegraFin Holding, Oxford Metrics, SSP Group , Sunrise Resources , Tertiary Minerals
TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Arbuthnot Banking Group
UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Public Sector Net Borrowing (09:30)
FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Blackrock Throgmorton Trust, Driver Group, Imperial Brands , Independent Inv Trust, Jersey Electricity 'A' Shares, Lancashire Holdings Limited, Plus500 Ltd (DI)
Friday February 22
INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Downing One VCT , Puma Vct 11, Triple Point Vct 2011 A
QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE
Primary Health Properties, SQN Secured Income Fund , Tufton Oceanic Assets Limited C Shs NPV, Tufton Oceanic Assets Limited NPV
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Consumer Price Index (EU) (10:00)
GDP (Preliminary) (GER) (07:00)
IFO Business Climate (GER) (09:00)
IFO Current Assessment (GER) (09:00)
IFO Expectations (GER) (09:00)
U. of Michigan Confidence (US) (15:00)
FINALS
Afarak Group (DI), Pearson
SPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Victrex plc
EGMS
Urals Energy Public Co Ltd. (DI)
AGMS
APC Technology Group, Caledonian Trust
UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
CBI Distributive Trades Surveys (11:00)
FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Montanaro UK Smaller Companies Inv Trust, RWS Holdings, Victrex plc, Zytronic