Week ahead: Jackson Hole conference, UK surveys in focus

Markets are likely to turn their attention back towards the US Federal Reserve in the coming week.

The US central bank will hold its annual week-long Economic Symposium at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with chair Janet Yellen herself due to deliver a speech on 26 August entitled The Federal Reserve's Monetary Policy Toolkit, while the topic on debate at the wider conference was "Designing Resilient Monetary Policy Frameworks for the Future".

Some economists believe that if the Fed is truly intent on tightening rates come September then Yellen will flag that possibility at the above venue.

Given markets are currently only pricing in a roughly 15% chance of tighter policy in September such a move would be likely to ruffle a few feathers among traders. Indeed, at the time of writing even a move in December was only more-or-less half-priced into Fed funds futures.

According to economists at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, "The market is overpricing a Sept hike, but may be under-pricing a December hike. The Fed miscommunication reinforced the USD sell-off. The market is far from the stretched long USD position of a year ago. If the Fed starts hiking again in December, investors will have a lot of catching up to do."

In terms of US data, towards the end of the week, on Thursday and Friday, investors would be asked to digest three first-tier indicators: durable goods orders, second quarter GDP and the results of the University of Michigan's consumer confidence survey for August.

Back in the UK, the focus would be on the more timelier data on the state of the economy, as markets stay on guard for any sign of undue weakness.

Up and until the time of writing some survey results had transmitted a direr picture of the British economy than the hard data, so it remained to be seen which would gain the upper hand or if they might just simply converge somewhere in the middle.

First out of the gate in that respect would be the Confederation of British Industry's industrial trends survey on Tuesday, followed by the BBA's mortgage loan data the following day and the CBI's distributive trades survey on Thursday.

Meanwhile, and in the euro area, the key releases looked to be Tuesday's preliminary purchasing managers survey results for the bloc's main economies and the IFO business confidence index for Germany, on Friday.

Monday August 22

INTERIMS
Wireless Group

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE
SQN Asset Finance Income Fund Limited C SHS NPV

AGMS
Puma Vct VII

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
CBI Industrial Trends Surveys (11:00)

Tuesday August 23

INTERIMS
Cape, Eurocell , Hostelworld Group , Persimmon

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Dewhurst

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Durable Goods Orders (US) (13:30)
New Homes Sales (US) (15:00)

Q2
Hostelworld Group

FINALS
Rank Group

AGMS
Northern Bear, Redt Energy

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
BBA Mortgage Lending Figures (09:30)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Blue Planet Investment Trust

Wednesday August 24

INTERIMS
Atlas Mara Limited (DI), Candover Investments, Carillion, Costain Group, Glencore , Gresham Computing, Headlam Group, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Paddy Power Betfair, Sportech, WPP, Xaar

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Blue Capital Global Reinsurance Fund Ltd (DI)

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE
Tetragon Financial Group Limited

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Crude Oil Inventories (US) (15:30)
Existing Home Sales (US) (15:00)
Gross Domestic Product (GER) (07:00)
House Price Index (US) (14:00)
MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)

AGMS
Collagen Solutions, Duet Real Estate Finance Ltd, Gable Holdings Inc., NB Distressed Debt Investment Fund Limited, NextEnergy Solar Fund Limited Red

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Aquatic Foods Group

Thursday August 25

INTERIMS
Anglo Pacific Group, Cairn Homes , CRH, Henry Boot, IFG Group, OptiBiotix Health, Playtech, STV Group

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Polar Capital Global Financials Trust, Tritax Big Box Reit

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Apax Global Alpha Limited , Avanti Capital, BlackRock World Mining Trust, British Smaller Companies VCT 2, Devro, Equiniti Group , FDM Group (Holdings), Glanbia, Hammerson, Henderson Group, London Stock Exchange Group, Low & Bonar, LPA Group, Marshall Motor Holdings, Mobeus Income & Growth Vct, North Midland Construction, Polypipe Group , Prudential, Robinson, Rotork, Taylor Wimpey

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Carnival, HICL Infrastructure Company Ltd

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)
IFO Business Climate (GER) (09:00)
IFO Current Assessment (GER) (09:00)
IFO Expectations (GER) (09:00)
Import Price Index (GER) (07:00)
Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)

Q2
Anglo Pacific Group

SPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Aberforth Geared Income Trust

AGMS
Albion Enterprise VCT, Oryx International Growth Fund Ltd., The Fulham Shore

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Nationwide House Price Index (07:00)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Hayward Tyler Group

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Bloomsbury Publishing, Carclo, Cohort, Dixons Carphone , Miton UK Microcap Trust, Park Group, Redcentric

Friday August 26

INTERIMS
Computacenter, Lavendon Group, Marshalls, Restaurant Group

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Aberdeen UK Tracker Trust, Beazley, Entu (UK) , Jupiter Fund Management , Microgen, Nichols, Relx plc

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE
GLI Alternative Finance , Primary Health Properties

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
GDP (Preliminary) (US) (13:30)
GFK Consumer Confidence (GER) (07:00)
M3 Money Supply (EU) (09:00)

SPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Manchester & London Investment Trust

AGMS
Bilby, Naspers Ltd. ADR, Yujin International Ltd. (DI)

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
GDP (Preliminary) (09:30)
Index of Services (09:30)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
GB Group, Halfords Group, Latham (James), Northern Bear, Octopus Apollo VCT, UK Mail Group