Wednesday preview: UK jobless rate, BoE minutes, Syria peace talks

21st Jan 2014 14:38

The UK unemployment rate will be released along with minutes from the Bank of England's (BoE) meeting earlier this month.Britain's jobless rate is expected to fall to 7.3% in the three months to November from 7.4% the previous period, edging closer the central bank's 7% threshold at which it will consider raising interest rates.The BoE has vowed to keep interest rates at record lows for an extended period until unemployment declines to at least 7% but it is not a trigger.The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)earlier this month decided to keep interest rates at 0.5% and its quantitative easing programme at £375bn.The minutes from the January 9th meeting should shed further light behind the BoE's move.Investec said its probable that the MPC may have discussed potential changes to its policy framework of forward guidance, particularly on raising its main policy rate once unemployment has fallen to 7%. The broker said the MPC will likely make qualitative changes, enhancing the role of excessive wage pressures, from the point of view of meeting the Bank's inflation target, within the architecture of forward-guidanceIn other closely watched macro-news tomorrow, Syria peace talks will begin in Geneva.Ahead of the conference, the United Nations (UN) on Monday withdrew an invitation for Iran to attend just 24 hours after it was issued. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was forced to rescind his offer to Iran after the Syrian opposition threatened to pull out of the talks if Iranian officials attended without first publicly committing to a transitional government for Syria. The UN talks with the Syrian government and the opposition in Switzerland come amid violence in the country and accusations that the country's rulers killed civilians. On the company front, Sage will release its first quarter interims with Numis predicting the software group to reiterate the outlook from the results published six weeks ago. However, there is a "chance they could be flighty, more positive, and indicate that the second half's performance has continued," the broker said. JD Wetherspoon is also out with first quarter results while WH Smith releases a trading update and Hochschild Mining issues a fourth quarter production report. Wednesday January 22ndTRADING ANNOUNCEMENTSFindel, EMIS, WH Smith, BHP BillitonIMSsFindel, Land Securities Group, Sage group, Hochschild Mining, JD Wetherspoon AGMsHargreave Hale AIM VCT 1, Lowland Investment Co., Polo Resources Ltd., WH SmithGMsAvesco GroupFINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATECardiff Property, Catco Reinsurance Opportunities fund Ltd (DI), Compass Group, Impax Asset Management Group, RWS Holdings, Shaftesbury, Titon HoldingsFINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEDiploma, Majedie InvestmentsINTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATEDP Aircraft I Limited Pref, Fletcher King, GCP Infrastructure Investments Ltd., IG Group Holdings, NCC Group, red24, SSEINTERIM DIVIDEND DATEHome Retail Group, MDM Engineering Group Ltd. (DI), National GridQUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATECity of London Investment TrustQUARTERLY PAYMENT DATEAssura GroupUK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSMPC Minutes (09:30)Claimant count rate (09:30)Public sector finances (09:30)Unemployment rate (09:30)Speech Ian McCafferty (18:30)INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSGeneva peace talks on Syria beginMBA Weekly mortgage applications (US) (12:00)Monetary policy announcement (CAN) (15:00)Monetary policy announcement (Thailand) (15:30)Monetary policy announcement (JP) (n/a)All-industry activity index (JP) (13:30)RD