Week ahead: City to check out performances

The Bank of England’s quarterly inflation report, due on Wednesday, is expected to add weight to speculation that interest rates will remain on hold until at least the middle of next year.

Victoria and David Beckhams son Romeo is one of Burberrys faces for its winter 2014 campaign

Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, said: “It seems highly probable that the Bank will be cutting its GDP growth and consumer price inflation forecasts for the rest of 2014 and 2015.”

This week will also bring the latest British Retail Consortium sales monitor, with tomorrow’s data tipped to show a decent, if unspectacular, performance on the high street during October.

Wednesday’s unemployment numbers are forecast to reveal a further improvement in the jobless rate.

Today

• Carr’s Milling – Full–year results are due from the owner of what it calls “the world’s most technologically advanced flour mill” in Kirkcaldy.

• CBI – The employers’ organisation holds its annual conference in London, where speakers will include Labour leader Ed Miliband and Fredrik Reinfeldt, the former prime minister of Sweden.

• Dignity – The funeral services firm updates investors on third–quarter trading.

Tomorrow

• Craneware – Shareholders gather for the Edinburgh software firm’s annual meeting.

• Sportech – The pools operator, locked in a row with the tax man, delivers its third–quarter trading statement.

• Vodafone – First–half results are expected to show a 12 per cent fall in earnings to £5.8bn.

Wednesday

• Flybe – The regional airline’s first–half figures should show further progress with its turnaround after posting its first annual profit for four years in the summer.

• Sainsbury’s – New chief executive Mike Coupe will give details of a strategic review with half–year results, having warned the firm faces its most turbulent period in three decades amid a price war.

• Burberry – The luxury goods group unveils half–year figures.

• SSE – Interim results are expected to show the Perth–based utility’s energy supply arm has narrowed its losses.

Thursday

• Infinis – First–half figures are due from the renewable energy company, which last week secured £52 million in funding for its A’Chruach wind farm in Argyll.

• JD Wetherspoon – The pubs chain holds its annual meeting.

• Ted Baker – A trading update is due from the fashion label with Glasgow roots.

Friday

• Aggreko – The temporary power firm, based in Glasgow, gives a trading update.

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