Week ahead in business and economics: September 8 - 12

Economic week ahead

Pay and employment will take centre stage when Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, delivers a speech at the annual TUC conference in Liverpool. Trade Union boss Frances O’Grady has already called for the government to expand the central bank’s remit to take into account unemployment before considering raising rates. Mr Carney will then be quizzed about the the labour market and interest rates when he appears before MPs on Wednesday. He will be joined by deputy governor Nemat Shafik and external rate setters Martin Weale and David Miles. Friday will see the release of data for industrial and construction output for July. The figures will provide urther insight into the pace of the recovery after survey data in August suggested growth was likely to slow in the coming months. Think-tanks the OECD and NIESR will also release their latest forecasts for the UK economy.

Monday September 8

Full-year results Dechra Pharmaceuticals, Green Reit.

Interim results Escher Group Holdings.

Trading update Associated British Foods.

Economics None scheduled.

Meetings None scheduled.

Tuesday September 9

Costa Coffee will stand out as the star performer when leisure giant Whitbread, also the owner of Premier Inn hotels, updates on second quarter trading.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley believe group life-for-like sales will have increased by 6pc but sales growth will have slowed at Premier Inn and at Whitbread’s restaurants division due to tough comparisons with the same period a year earlier.

The broker has pencilled in 7pc like-for-like sales growth at Costa, up from 4.5pc in the prior three months, as Britons still show no signs of kicking their coffee habit.

Full-year results Abcam, Hargreaves Services.

Interim results Hilton Food Group.

Trading update Dixons Carphone, Whitbread, Fenner.

Economics UK industrial production, UK trade, Niesr monthly GDP estimate, BRC-KPMG retail sales monitor.

Meetings Oxford Instruments AGM, Liontrust Asset Management AGM.

Wednesday September 10

B&Q owner Kingfisher has endured a tough second quarter, in which like-for-like sales dropped 1.8pc amid weak consumer demand across Europe, most painfully in France, one of its key markets.

Sir Ian Cheshire promised to provide more clarity to investors when the group updates the market with its half-year results, and shareholders will be eager to discover whether the second quarter weakness was part of a longer term trend or just a short-term blip. If the former, they will want to know how Sir Ian plans to weather the economic malaise in Europe. Kingfisher has recently focussed on its UK business and this is likely to continue for the rest of the year. Warwick Okines, analyst at Deutsche Bank, expects pre-tax profit to fall to £348m, 5pc lower than for the same period a year earlier.

Full-year results Barratt Developments, Thorntons, Manchester United, McBride, Purecircle.

Interim results Kingfisher, Alliance Pharma, Alkane Energy, Advanced Medical Solutions Group.

Trading update None scheduled.

Economics None scheduled.

Meetings Sports Direct AGM, Greene King AGM, Hornby AGM.

Thursday September 11

After Sir Ken Morrison lambasted the management strategy of his eponymous supermarket as “bulls**t”, investors will be hoping that chief executive Dalton Philips has taken the (metaphorical) bull by the horns. Shares in Morrisons had actually been experiencing a renaissance until Tesco issued a shock profits warning and cut dividends earlier this month – The Daily Telegraph’s Questor column has downgraded Morrisons to sell based on its poor outlook.

Adding to the supermarket’s woes, Barclays analysts predict that it will report first half profits of £165 million, a significant decrease from the £344 million the grocery retailer made during the same period last year.

Full-year results Ashmore Group, Dunelm, Ricardo.

Interim results Wm Morrison, Next, Ocado, Deltex Medical Group.

Trading update Home Retail Group.

Economics RICS house price balance.

Meetings Entertainment One AGM.

Friday September 12

Margins are likely to be the main focus for investors when JD Wetherspoon reports full-years results. The group, which currently has around 900 pubs around Britain but believes there is potentially room for up to 1,500, has been continuing to grow sales but its margins have come under pressure from rising costs.

Annual results will not show any reversal in the trend. Analysts are expecting full-year pre-tax profit to come in at £78m compared to £76.9m before execptional items in 2013. An increase in revenue, driven in particular by food sales, will be offset by a 60 basis points fall in margins, according to Numis analyst, Douglas Jack.

Full-year results JD Wetherspoon

Interim results SThree.

Trading update None scheduled.

Economics UK construction output, US retail sales.

Meetings None scheduled.

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