Thursday preview: US CPI, AstraZeneca in focus

The Department of Labor is expected to report that the annual rate of consumer price inflation accelerated from a clip of 7.1% in December to 7.3%.

Core CPI is also expected to have picked up the pace, from 5.5% to 5.9%.

Meanwhile, the market spotlight in Europe will be on speeches from European Central Bank vice-president, Luis de Guindos, and the bank's chief economist, Philip Lane, at 1200 GMT and 1315 GMT, respectively.

Against that backdrop, officials at Sweden's central bank will make a policy announcement at 0830 GMT.

On home shores, overnight the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors will release its house price balance for the month of January.

Further afield, in Indonesia, rate-setters are due to meet to decide on monetary policy with the consensus being that the seven-day reverse repurchase rate will be unchanged at 3.50%.

In the corporate space, and for AstraZeneca's fourth quarter numbers, UBS analyst Michael Leuchten says that investors' focus will be on the performance of the underlying business following the acquisition of Alexion mid-year.

Their attention will also be on the key drivers of the drug giant's top-line growth, sales of Tagrisso, Lynparza and Imfinzi, all of which fell short of analysts' estimates in the third quarter.

So too, Leuchten added, investors were keen for additional commentary around the company's latest clinical success, the PROPEL trial for Lynparza.

For the fourth quarter, Leuchten had penciled in a 52.9% jump in sales to approximately $11.33bn for a 61.8% surge in core earnings before interest and tax to $3.07bn.

Thursday 10 February

INTERIMS

Ashmore Group, MJ Gleeson , Redrow

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Ashtead Group

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Henderson Smaller Companies Inv Trust

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Custodian Reit , ICG Enterprise Trust, INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION COM STK USD0.20 (CDI), The Renewables Infrastructure Group Limited

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Consumer Price Index (US) (13:30)

Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)

Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)

Q4

AstraZeneca, Unilever

GMS

SEC Newgate S.P.A. NPV (CDI)

FINALS

AstraZeneca, PJSC MNC Norilsk Nickel ADR, Relx plc, Unilever

SPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Unicorn AIM VCT

AGMS

Benchmark Holdings , easyJet, Tritax Eurobox (GBP)

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Royal Mail, Watches of Switzerland Group

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Balance of Trade (07:00)

GDP (Preliminary) (07:00)

Gross Domestic Product (07:00)

Index of Services (07:00)

Industrial Production (07:00)

Manufacturing Production (07:00)

RICS Housing Market Survey (00:01)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Hargreave Hale AIM VCT , Sage Group, Smiths News , Unicorn AIM VCT

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust, Avon Protection, Impax Asset Management Group, Virgin Money UK