Wednesday preview: US ADP jobs report, Tesco in the spotlight

Barring surprises, financial markets' focus on Wednesday will begin to shift towards the US labour market.

Consultancy ADP is scheduled to release its monthly tally of private sector payrolls which sometimes helps frame market expectations for the official jobs report that follows two days afterwards - and which often dictates Wall Street's direction over the following month.

Consensus anticipates the report from ADP will reveal a slowdown in hiring from August's pace of 195,000 to 138,000, mimicking the recent slowdown in the official payrolls data.

According to Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Macroeconomics, the ISM factory sector Purchasing Managers' Index published during the previous session was consistent with jobs growth more than halving to 50-75,000 per month by end 2019 versus an average gain of 161,000 observed over the past three months.

Against that backdrop, speeches from three regional Federal Reserve presidents are scheduled for throughout the day.

No major economic releases are scheduled for Wednesday in the UK, Asia or Eurozone.

For Tesco's second quarter trading update, analysts at Deutsche Bank anticipate that the grocer will publish a 0.3% dip in sales excluding fuel for a 0.9% drop on a like-for-like basis ex-fuel.

By geographies, UK&Ireland LFLs are seen off by 0.5%, Europe by 2.5%, Asia down by 3.0% but Bank higher by 3.5%.

Sales are seen down by 1.2% in the fist half of the financial year to reach £31.80bn, alongside a 14.7% fall in earnings before interest and tax to £1.267bn.

Wednesday October 02

INTERIMS

Inspiration Healthcare Group , Tesco

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Croda International, Savills

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)

FINALS

Ceres Power Holdings

SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Fuller Smith & Turner

AGMS