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(Sharecast News) - The focus on Thursday will shift to the Bank of England, which is expected to boost the size of its asset purchase facility by £110bn, followed later in the session by the US Federal Reserve which may also signal that further quantitative easing is in the pipeline.
That is of course barring a major surprise on Wednesday night in the form of a Biden win being announced, which would require him to take the states of Arizona, Georgia and Michigan, then the result will not be known at least until Friday, when vote counting will be finished in Pennsylvania, and perhaps not until the following week.
The US jobs market will also be in the spotlight as the Department of Labor publishes key weekly jobless claims data.
Those figures will be followed by the all-important monthly jobs report, which in turn may feed into expectations for fiscal stimulus once the election results are known.
Covid-19 will not be far from investors' minds either as AstraZeneca, who is developing a vaccine alongside Oxford University updates on its third quarter financials.
UBS's Michael Leuchten is ahead of consensus for both the drugmaker's top and bottom lines.
The analyst is forecasting a total revenues of $6.72bn (consensus: $6.67bn), for core operating profits of $1.91bn (consensus: $1.82bn) and core earnings per share of $1.05 (consensus: $1.0).
Investors' focus will be on the firm's Covid-19 vaccine candidate, AZD1222), which is one of the front-runners in global efforts to tame the novel coronavirus pandemic.
However, concerns about cash generation are likely to resurface and momentum on topline growth will be "key", he said.
Linked to the above, he highlighted the "softness" seen recently in some of the company's peers with AstraZeneca having a roughly 20% exposure to the Asian giant.
At the individual product level, consensus was anticipating sales for Tagrisso of $1.13bn, $463m for Lynparza, $546m for Imfinzi and $130m for Calquence.
"We will also look for any commentary around COVID-19 potential impact in Q4'20 as well as 2021 and the path to recovery."
Thursday 05 November
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Auto Trader Group , Aveva Group, Sainsbury (J), Trainline, Wincanton, Wizz Air Holdings
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Anglo Asian Mining, EMIS Group, Octopus AIM VCT 2
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Bloomsbury Publishing, Downing Three VCT H Shs, Downing Three VCT J Shs, LLoyds Banking Group 9.25% Non-Cum Irredeemable Pref Shares, LLoyds Banking Group 9.75% Non-Cum Irredeemable Pref Shares, New Century AIM VCT, Steppe Cement Ltd, Tribal Group
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INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)
Factory Orders (GER) (07:00)
Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)
Q3
Amryt Pharma, AstraZeneca, Bank Pekao SA GDS (Reg S)
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BowLeven, Kin and Carta , RDI Reit
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Applied Graphene Materials
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Softcat
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PMI Construction (09:30)
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Ashmore Group, Clinigen Group, Dechra Pharmaceuticals, EKF Diagnostics Holdings , Ideagen, Jupiter UK Growth Investment Trust, New Star Investment Trust, NWF Group, Schroder Japan Growth Fund, Softcat
29 Apr 2024 22:52
J&J, Bristol Myers lose challenges to US drug price negotiation program
April 29 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Monday rejected a challenge by Bristol Myers Squibb and Johnson & Johnson to a law requiring them to negotiate the prices of their blockbuster blood clot prevention drugs with the U.S government's Medicare health insurance program or pay heavy penalties.
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