A Brief Look At The Week Ahead

Oil and consumer spending will be key items on the Bank of England's agenda when the Monetary Policy Committee meets this week. Deputy governor Sir John Gieve recently revealed that he had seriously considered voting in favour of raising interest rates at last month's meeting. Howver, analysts feel that recent data pointing to an economy under control, and a significant fall in the price of oil, will offset the Bank's earlier concerns about rising inflation. Goldman Sachs are expecting Tesco to reveal underlying H1 pretax profit by 9% to 1bn when they report on Tuesday, but operating margins could take a hit from energy cost increases. Conversely, Tesco's own petrol business is likely to add 1% to like-for-like sales. Analysts predict that total like-for-like sales, including petrol, will increase to 6%. Investors will be looking for news on the chain's recently launched Tesco Direct online offering, and the prospects for its international operations following a warning from the authorities in Thailand last week. The ruling military council said it intended to restrict the expansion plans of major offshore retail groups. Thailand is Tesco's third-largest market after Korea and the UK. Any update on the group's planned expansion into the US will also be welcome. On Wednesday it is the turn of oil giant BP to update the market. It has been a turbulent few months for BP, including the fallout from oil spills at its Alaskan operations, delays to the launch of its Thunder Horse platform in the Gulf of Mexico and a slowdown in the price of crude. Investors will therefore be seeking assurances at this week's trading update that the company remains on track to hit annual earnings and production targets. BAE Systems' shareholders will be having their say on Wednesday, as the company puts the proposed sale of its 20% stake in the troubled Airbus project to the vote the the AGM. Good news is expected from Ted Baker on Thursday when it publishes interim results and updates the market on current trading. Analysts forecast it will report an interim pre-tax profit of 6.7m, up from 6.3m in the same period last year. Amongst others in the spotlight this week are :- Tate & Lyle on Monday; Walker Greenbank and Yoomedia on Tuesday; Fonebak on Wednesday; Halfords on Thursday and easyJet on Friday. A quieter week than of late, but with commodity prices still fluctuating daily, I'm sure there will be some volatility to look forward to. Good hunting! Greystone (Greystone is Alan English, City Editor at MoneyAM.)

Good morning traders and welcome to October!

In Asia today, the Nikkei was recently up 141.32 points at 16,268.90, while the Hong Kong market is closed today.

New York's main oil contract, light sweet crude for November delivery, was up 31 cents at $63.22 a barrel from $62.91 in late US trades Friday.

Happy trading!

G.

Happy?..impossible with idiots like Frist in the States..

End-of-day Market Summary