Wednesday preview: ADP jobs report, Legal&General in focus

Consultancy ADP is set to publish its eagerly-awaited monthly estimate of private sector payrolls in the States, at 1315 GMT, with analysts pegging February's gain at 185,000, following an increase of 213,000 during the previous month.

Critically, the ADP report is used by many in the markets to try and anticipate the official jobs data that is published two days afterwards, although from one month to the next the correlation has often proven to be quite weak.

Also due out on Wednesday are foreign trade figures covering the month of December, at 1430 GMT, followed by the release of the Federal Reserve's so-called 'Beige Book' at 1900 GMT.

Speeches by two top Fed officials, Fed vicechairman John Williams and Cleveland Fed boss, Loretta Mester, are also scheduled, both for 1500 GMT.

A raft of corporate updates are also set for release on Wednesday, including from financial services heavyweight Legal&General.

Numis analyst, Marcus Barnard, has penciled-in a 15% jump in full-year operating profits from the outfit to £2.365bn (consensus: £2.3bn) on an IFRS basis, for earnings per share of 32.2p.

Excluding mortality releases, which as Barnard explained was roughly the same as ongoing profit excluding debt costs and investment projects, that equated to £2.24bn at the divisional level (consensus: £2.2bn), or 10% more than a year earlier.

According to the same analysts, the key driver of the firm's performance would be the margins delivered on what he expected would be a short £10bn of annuity sales in 2018 and the amount of annuity releases.

He was calling for a £380m reserve release and a positive variance of £30m, as a result of higher than anticipated mortality in the annuity book.

Operating profits at L&G's retirment arm are seen reaching £1.542bn, at its investment management division they were seen at £404m, at the protection arm at £297m and at LGC at £313m, alongside a full-year payout of 16.3p per share and a Solvency II coverage ratio of 192%.

Wednesday March 06

INTERIMS

Allergy Therapeutics

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Stagecoach Group, Van Elle Holdings

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE

Merchants Trust, Novacyt S.A. (CDI)

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Kosmos Energy (DI)

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Balance of Trade (US) (13:30)

Crude Oil Inventories (US) (15:30)

Factory Orders (US) (15:00)

MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)

New Homes Sales (US) (15:00)

FINALS

Anpario, BATM Advanced Communications Ltd., Costain Group, FDM Group (Holdings), Foresight Solar Fund Limited, Glenveagh Properties, Headlam Group, Just Eat , Legal & General Group, Paddy Power Betfair, Pagegroup, Secure Income Reit , Seplat Petroleum Development Company (DI), Tritax Big Box Reit , Vivo Energy , VR Education Holdings

AGMS

Hazel Renewable Energy VCT 1, Hazel Renewable Energy VCT 2, Redhall Group