Week Ahead: German And US CPI | Greggs' Ambitious Expansion | EasyJet Ready To Soar?

13th May by Keelan Cooper

8 comments 2343 reads

Good morning and welcome to the Week Ahead, your weekly destination for discussion and analysis of the largest stocks in the UK and overseas.

The major macroeconomic news last week was that the UK's GDP figures surpassed expectations, growing by 0.6% in the first quarter of 2024, the strongest in nearly three years and ending a recessionary phase.

This positive performance has buoyed investor confidence and has sent our leading indices to all-time highs. While welcomed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as a sign of economic recovery, it has sparked debates over monetary policy, with speculation about the commencement of rate cuts despite remaining concerns over inflation. However, with Bank of England committee members starting to vote in favour of rate cuts, we might be seeing renewed investor confidence and the beginning of a UK stock market turnaround.

This week we have German CPI announcements on Tuesday, followed by the US CPI print on Wednesday, so be prepared for some volatility on these days!

Companies reporting

Day	Big UK earnings	US company reporting	EU company reporting
Monday - 13th May	HY 2024 results - Victrex, Diploma	Q1 2024 earnings - Petrobras (ADR)	Q1 2024 earnings- Ferrovial
Tuesday - 14th May	Q1 Trading update - Greggs, Flutter Entertainment Q2 Trading update - CYBG HY 2024 results - Marston’s FY 2024 results - Vodafone, DCC	Q1 2024 earnings - Home Depot, Hess, Eversource Energy	Q1 2024 earnings - Bayer, Veolia Environnement, Porsche Automobil Holding, Brenntag, OCI, Nordex, A2A, Grifols, ACS Actividades de Construccion y Servicios
Wednesday - 15th May	Q2 2024 earnings - TUI HY 2024 results - Britvic, Compass Group, Imperial Brands FY 2024 results - Burberry, Experian	Earnings release - Progressive Corp Q3 2024 earnings release - Cisco Systems	Q1 2024 earnings - Allianz, Commerzbank, Merck KGaA, RWE, E.ON, Snam, Telecom Italia
Thursday - 16th May	HY 2024 results - easyJet, Grainger, Sage FY 2024 results - BT, United Utilities	Q2 2024 earnings - Applied Materials, Deere & Co Q1 2025 earnings - Walmart	Q1 2024 earnings - Zurich Insurance Group, Swiss Re, Deutsche Telekom, Aegon

Unlock with Email

Unlock with Google

Already have an account?
Login here

eParo

13th May

easyJet (LON:EZJ) summer holiday travel chaos looms as pilots reject pay rise and threaten to strike

https://www.mirror.co.uk/trave...

NewInvestor1972

Nice write up on easyJet (LON:EZJ) Keelan, as you say the proof is in the pudding.

I'm a big fan myself, mainly due to the growth potential of the holidays business. Previously like Ryan Air they just focussed on flights and outsourced the higher margin package holiday business. Over the last few years they have really built out the holidays business to take on Jet2 and TUI. H1 was 71% up at £310 million revenue, holidays make better margins than flight only.

I think that will be the good news story on Thursday, fingers crossed.

Online Travel Agents will feel this, you can tell already as they are all working closer with the dreaded Ryan Air.

God, there is always something ready to screw things up....

Hopefully they can avert industrial action,

A spokesperson for easyJet said: ““We are disappointed that the pilot pay deal was narrowly rejected. We remain in constructive dialogue with BALPA and no strike action is planned.”

Caper4

Prefer Jet2 (LON:JET2) myself in the travel holiday sector although I agree that easyJet (LON:EZJ) is attractive for the reasons you mention Keelan,although the strike threat would put me off investing presently.

Db47

according to the scant details in the article the pay deal on the table seems very generous, (although I have nothing to compare to with rival operators) and rejected by just 54% so you’d think a deal is close ?

Keelan Cooper

14th May

Hi Caper4,

Whilst I like easyJet (LON:EZJ) and am overall quite optimistic on the sector over the medium/long term, I am in agreement with you here.

Jet2 (LON:JET2) is a serial winner and earnings surpriser, with arguably the best management team in the sector (you have no idea how many times Jet2, or formerly Dart Group, has come up in case studies on our end).

The mammoth cash pile on the balance sheet also helps to soothe any immediate nerves that investors might face when investing in a sector that is known for its unpredictability.

I wouldn't bet against easyJet resolving the existing disputes. It looks like they might nearly be there with the last 'no' vote to the pay rise at only 56.4%. However, this does represent one of the primary business risks it faces at this time, and there could be better risk/reward dynamics elsewhere.

Best,
Keelan

17th May

It looks like BT (LON:BT.A) shares are holding onto the 17% gain they made after yesterday's annual results announcement.

Allison Kirkby, Chief Executive of BT Group, reported record progress in network expansion and financial performance, surpassing the £3 billion cost and service transformation target a year early. With the peak capex phase of the full fibre rollout completed, BT expects significant short-term cash flow increases, aiming to more than double normalised free cash flow in five years. This has enabled a 3.9% dividend hike for FY24.

BT is also aiming for an additional £3 billion in cost savings by FY29 and will focus on its UK operations while optimising the global business.

The market undoubtedly loved the announcement yesterday, a welcome change from the longstanding underperformance that the UK telecom sector has experienced in recent decades. Could this be the start of a turnaround in fortunes for BT and the UK telecom sector as a whole?

Would be interesting to hear your thoughts!

Pat W

23rd May

Week Ahead: German and US CPI | Greggs' ambitious expansion | easyJet ready to soar?

Companies reporting

Unlock the rest of this article with a 14 day trial

About the Author

Keelan Cooper

8 comments

Unlock the metrics for all these stocks and more...

Unlock the metrics for all these stocks and more...