Thursday preview: US Presidential debate, Unilever in the spotlight

Financial markets' focus on Thursday will be squarely on the US Presidential debate scheduled for after the close of markets in New York.

With just under two weeks to go until the 3 November vote, Real Clear Politics's national average of voter polls still had Democratic party hopeful, Joe Biden, 8.5 points out in front of the Republican incumbent, Donald Trump.

In so-called 'battle ground' states, the difference was narrowed at 4.0 points, yet for the moment most commentators only saw an outside chance that Trump might win a second term.

To take note of, investors were also increasingly preoccupied with whether the Democrats might succeed in taking back control of the Senate and not just the White House.

Ahead of the debate, market participants would also be keeping an eye out for the latest weekly jobless claims data in the States, as well as around talks on Capitol Hill for a fourth government stimulus package.

Ahead of Unilever's third quarter update, UBS analyst, Guillaume Delmas, bumped up his forecast for the consumer goods giant's rate of underlying sales growth from 0.9% to 2.6%.

Continued strong demand for hygiene products was expected to result in a 20% jump for sales in the segment over the three months to September.

That would nevertheless be slower than the 26% jump seen in the second quarter, with growth expected to ease further in the final three months of 2020 to 12%.

Continued momentum in winning market share in the States was also expected to have helped, together with a "swift" rebound in China and stronger than initially anticipated growth in Brazil.

Thursday 22 October

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

BBGI SICAV S.A. (DI), Gamma Communications, Oakley Capital Investments Ltd. (DI)

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Amati AIM Vct , Animalcare Group, CareTech Holding, Cenkos Securities, Highcroft Investment, Maven Income & Growth VCT, Smiths Group, STM Group, Synthomer

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE

M Winkworth

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)

Existing Home Sales (US) (13:30)

Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)

Q3

PJSC Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works GDR (Reg S), Public Joint Stock Company Severstal GDR (Reg S), Unilever

AGMS

1pm, Alumasc Group, FRP Advisory Group , MobilityOne Ltd., Superdry

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Anglo American, Rentokil Initial, Secure Trust Bank

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Retail Sales (07:00)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

IG Group Holdings

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

European Opportunities Trust, Fidelity Asian Values, FRP Advisory Group , Henderson EuroTrust, Mcbride, Smiths Group, TR European Growth Trust