Thursday preview: US FOMC, Persimmon
The spotlight will be firmly on the US on Thursday, with a raft of economic indicators set for release.
Perhaps the most interesting of the lot will be the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee's last policy meeting at 1900 BST, on 12-13 June, when rate-setters nudged higher their expected pace of policy tightening for 2018.
Also included among those indicators would be the ADP private sector payrolls figures at 1315 BST, followed by the release of the closely-followed ISM services sector Purchasing Managers' Index for June, at 1500 BST.
Also due out is the Department of Energy's weekly oil inventory statistics, at 1530 BST.
Nevertheless, the market reaction to the release of the above may be restrained ahead of the US non-farm payrolls numbers due out the next day.
Traders were also expectant ahead of the Friday deadline for US tariffs on roughly $34bn-worth of Chinese made goods.
No major economic data were scheduled for release in the UK.
Several builders and related outfits are set to provide trading updates on Thursday, including Persimmon.
Despite the ongoing economic and political uncertainty, analysts at Deutsche Bank expected the housebuilder to guide towards a 2% rise in completions for the half year to reach 7,950, with average selling prices ahead by 2.5% to £218,500 and top-line growth of 4.5% to £1.738bn.
The broker's Gregor Kuglitsch was also expecting fatter margins, with an improvement of 40 basis points to 29.2%, although he believed it unlikely that the firm would provide any further detail on that metric at the current stage of the financial year.
In parallel, fashion retailer Superdry was scheduled to publish its full-year results, with investors likely especially keen for more information following the sharp slide in the share price since the start of the year.
As recently as 10 May, the company had reported a 13% fall in fourth quarter like-for-like sales, triggering a 20% drop in the shares.
On that same occasion, the company had guided towards full-year profits before tax in a range of between £96.5m to £97.5m.
For the fiscal year immediately ahead, management was expecting a high single digit rate of growth in statutory revenues, alongside a 'moderate' increase in its operating margins.
Thursday July 05
INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Cardiff Property, Grainger
INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE
CC Japan Income & Growth Trust, Character Group, Chrysalis VCT, Dewhurst, Dunedin Smaller Companies Inv Trust, European Investment Trust, Hargreave Hale AIM VCT 1, Paragon Banking Group, Stride Gaming, Treatt, Up Global Sourcing Holdings , Zytronic
QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE
F & C UK High Income Trust , F&C Private Equity Trust, Schroder Income Growth Fund, Scottish Inv Trust
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)
Crude Oil Inventories (US) (16:00)
Factory Orders (GER) (07:00)
Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)
ISM Non-Manufacturing (US) (15:00)
PMI Composite (US) (14:45)
PMI Services (US) (14:45)
Q2
Ferrexpo
FINALS
Purplebricks Group, Superdry
SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Best of the Best, Bisichi Mining, Chrysalis VCT, F & C UK High Income Trust B Shares
AGMS
3i Infrastructure, F & C UK High Income Trust , Great Portland Estates, Maven Income & Growth VCT, Pennon Group, Shires Income, U And I Group
TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Associated British Foods, Bovis Homes Group, Electrocomponents, Empiric Student Property , Great Portland Estates, Persimmon
FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Applegreen, Arena Events Group , Forterra, Good Energy Group, Huntsworth, London Security, Mears Group, Restaurant Group, Ten Entertainment Group
FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Aveva Group, Biffa, Bisichi Mining, Brown (N.) Group, Caffyns, Calculus VCT , Cambian Group, Circle Property , CML Microsystems, Cropper (James), Dairy Crest Group, De La Rue, Entertainment One Limited, Gresham House Strategic , Hibernia Reit , Homeserve, IG Design Group, Impellam Group, Liontrust Asset Management, Mountview Estates, Nex Group , Next, Palace Capital , Pennon Group, Scisys, Speedy Hire, Steppe Cement Ltd, TalkTalk Telecom Group , Tatton Asset Management , Trans-Siberian Gold, ULS Technology , Veltyco Group , Warpaint London , Wincanton, Workspace Group, Xpediator