LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Investors' focus on Thursday will shift back towards the US jobs market and in particular to any data points that confirm the surprise increase in payrolls seen in the figures for May.
Barclays Research expects the latest initial weekly jobless claims figures from the Department of Labor to reveal a dip from 1.877m during the previous week to 1.450m.

Producer inflation data due out alongside and referencing the previous month are forecast to show a 1.2% drop in prices year-on--year, unchanged from April.

In the UK, the sole report due out is the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors House Price Index for May.

Over on the Continent meanwhile, the main talking point for traders will be the meeting of euro area finance ministers, where they are expected the ongoing surveillance programmes for Cyprus, Spain and Greece.

On the corporate side of things, speciality chemicals and sustainable technologies outfit, Johnson Matthey, is due to release its results for the year ending on 31 March.

UBS's Andrew Stott has penciled-in full-year earnings before interest and taxes of £529m, with next year's profits seen falling by 25% to £397m (consensus: £437.0m) on the back of a 12% decline in sales excluding metals values.

Stott was also anticipating a lower dividend payout for the last financial year of 24.5p per share (consensus: 65.0p), although his £1.45bn estimate for the company's debt was roughly in line with that of other analysts.

To take note of, on 30 March, Johnson Matthey preannounced that the impact from Covid-19 on 2020 EBIT would be approximately £50.0m.

However, part of that hit was the result of phasing issues in Health - to the benefit of 2021.

Stott said he would be focusing on Johnson Matthey's capex plans, cost savings, progress on commercialising the battery materials project and guidance - although the latter might be shelved.

The analyst also aired his concerns regarding the group's leverage, which he estimated was set to climb to 2.6 times in financial year 2021 and to over 3.0 times operating profits by the end of the first half of that year.

In particular, he said: "we are wary of underlying cost inflation associated with growth capex in both Clean Air and the battery materials project."

Meanwhile, the firm's exposure to diesel, which accounted for roughly 20% of group profits, was labelled a "structural challenge".

Thursday 11 June

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Aeci 5 1/2% Prf, AVI Global Trust , Impax Asset Management Group, Orchard Funding Group , Triple Point VCT 2011 'B', Triple Point Vct 2011 A, Witan Investment Trust Plc

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Assura , Ediston Property Investment Company

GMS

VR Education Holdings

FINALS

Babcock International Group, CMC Markets, Jlen Environmental Assets Group Limited NPV, Johnson Matthey, OnTheMarket, Syncona Limited NPV

AGMS

Alfa Financial Software Holdings , Bacanora Lithium, Churchill China, Churchill China, Coats Group, Corero Network Security, Dignity, Fair Oaks Income Limited 2017 Shs NPV, Invesco Perpetual UK Smaller Companies Inv Trust, Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets, NB Global Floating Rate Income Fund Ltd GBP, Parity Group, PureTech Health , Sopheon , Xeros Technology Group

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Fuller Smith & Turner

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Intertek Group

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Anglo-Eastern Plantations, Charles Stanley Group, Frenkel Topping Group, Henry Boot, London Security, Phoenix Spree Deutschland Limited Shs NPV , Severn Trent, Sopheon , Templeton Emerging Markets Inv Trust, Vodafone Group, Witan Pacific Inv Trust

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