Alexander Bueso Sharecast News

18 Feb, 2019 17:25

Week ahead: US-China trade talks, central banks in the spotlight

The markets' focus over the coming week will be on the continuing trade talks between the US and China, in Washington D.C..

Negotiations over the previous week were described by the US President himself as "productive" and according to reports, Donald Trump was now considering a 60-day extension to the deadline for a deal to be reached before hiking America's trade tariffs on China yet again.

There was also talk that the two negotiating teams were aiming to reach a Memorandum of Understanding of sorts, although some analysts had pointed out that China had often ignored such agreements.

Against that backdrop, central banks will again be in focus, with the minutes of the US central bank's last policy meeting set for release on Wednesday, followed by a raft of Fed speakers on Friday, most of whom will be speaking from New York with the main topic set to be the future of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet.

There is also a fair bit of interest in this week's speeches by European Central Bank officials, including various by its chief economist, Peter Praet, starting from Tuesday.

ECB chief, Mario Draghi, is also on the speech calendar, for Friday.

IHS Markit's 'flash' Purchasing Managers' Indices for the euro area's service and manufacturing sevrice sectors, covering the month of February, are also due to be published, on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the ZEW and IFO institutes will release their closely-followed economic and business confidence surveys on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively.

In the UK, the main data point will be Tuesday's monthly employment report.

A raft of key economic indicators is also due out over the course of the week in Japan, including figures on 'core' machinery orders (Monday), international trade (Wednesday), All-industry activity index (December) and 'core' CPI (January).

Monday February 18

INTERIMS

City of London Investment Group, PCI-PAL, Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI)

FINALS

McColl's Retail Group , Reckitt Benckiser Group

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Reckitt Benckiser Group

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Paragon Banking Group

Tuesday February 19

INTERIMS

BHP Group, Blancco Technology Group, DotDigital Group

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

ZEW Survey (EU) - Economic Sentiment (10:00)

ZEW Survey (GER) - Current Situation (10:00)

ZEW Survey (GER) - Economic Sentiment (10:00)

Bank of Georgia Group

GMS

Low & Bonar

FINALS

Bank of Georgia Group, HSBC Holdings, InterContinental Hotels Group, Spectris

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Walker Greenbank

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

CBI Industrial Trends Surveys (11:00)

Claimant Count Rate (08:30)

Wednesday February 20

INTERIMS

Pan African Resources

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Building Permits (US) (13:30)

Current Account (EU) (09:00)

Housing Starts (US) (13:30)

MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)

Producer Price Index (GER) (07:00)

FINALS

Glencore , Hochschild Mining, Intu Properties, Lloyds Banking Group, Temple Bar Inv Trust

ANNUAL REPORT

Intu Properties

AGMS

Gooch & Housego, Titon Holdings

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Gooch & Housego

Thursday February 21

INTERIMS

Avation, Go-Ahead Group, Hays, InnovaDerma, Mcbride, Wilmington

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Ramsdens Holdings

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Heath (Samuel) & Sons, Mobeus Income & Growth 2 Vct

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Aberdeen Standard Equity Income Trust , Carnival, GlaxoSmithKline, HICL Infrastructure Company Ltd, NextEnergy Solar Fund Limited Red, Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV, Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV (USD)

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Consumer Price Index (GER) (13:00)

Consumer Price Index (GER) (07:00)

Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)

Existing Home Sales (US) (15:00)

Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)

Hellenic Telecom Industries SA ADS

FINALS

Anglo American, BAE Systems, Barclays, Centrica, Georgia Capital , Hellenic Telecom Industries SA ADS, Kaz Minerals , Macfarlane Group, Morgan Sindall Group, Playtech, Rathbone Brothers, Relx plc, RPS Group, Serco Group, TBC Bank Group, Telecom Egypt SAE GDS (Regs), Vitec Group

SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Independent Inv Trust

AGMS

CSF Group, IntegraFin Holding, Oxford Metrics, SSP Group , Sunrise Resources , Tertiary Minerals

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Arbuthnot Banking Group

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Public Sector Net Borrowing (09:30)

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Blackrock Throgmorton Trust, Driver Group, Imperial Brands , Independent Inv Trust, Jersey Electricity 'A' Shares, Lancashire Holdings Limited, Plus500 Ltd (DI)

Friday February 22

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Downing One VCT , Puma Vct 11, Triple Point Vct 2011 A

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE

Primary Health Properties, SQN Secured Income Fund , Tufton Oceanic Assets Limited C Shs NPV, Tufton Oceanic Assets Limited NPV

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Consumer Price Index (EU) (10:00)

GDP (Preliminary) (GER) (07:00)

IFO Business Climate (GER) (09:00)

IFO Current Assessment (GER) (09:00)

IFO Expectations (GER) (09:00)

U. of Michigan Confidence (US) (15:00)