Barclays Share News (BARC)

Having had time to digest the results from HSBC, next up on the banking results menu is Barclays. It has been just over three months since the bank updated the market, and last we heard, trading in April had seen a continuation of the trends seen in the first quarter.Broker Charles Stanley forecasts profit before tax for the half-year of £3,947m and earnings per share of 20.9p. The interim dividend is tipped to be 2p.Predicting the profit before tax figure is complicated, however, by the prospect of charges for the payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling issue. Nomura is going for profit before tax of £3.3bn before PPI charges, goodwill and other non-operating items which, the broker notes, "would imply downside risk" to its current full-year forecast of £6.6bn.Turning to Barclays Capital (BarCap), the investment banking arm which has been the engine of growth for the group in recent years, Nomura said: "We estimate 2Q [second-quarter] BarCap profits of £621m, under half the £1.3bn reported in 1Q. We assume 2Q top-line revenue of £2.5bn, 25% down on 1Q, with BarCap more reliant on FICC [Fixed Income, Commodities & Currencies] than some other leading global capital markets businesses. Given the current weakness of capital markets, the management is again likely to be asked about the longer-term revenue and profitability targets," Nomura reckons.Scottish engineering firm Weir was one of the best performers of 2010, and the share prices has continued like a train this year, as well. "We expect the improvement in order inflow, identified over Q1 to have been sustained over Q2 although we believe it very unlikely that the company will be able to replicate the 187% y/y [year-on-year] growth achieved over the first 13 weeks of the year," notes Jeremy Batstone-Carr, head of equities research at Charles Stanley. "The consequence of a still strong order intake, against a cautiously weaker 'downstream' operation indicates a more muted potential for earnings upgrades in the wake of these results. Minerals and Oil & Gas divisions are expected to have performed strongly," Batstone-Carr concluded. Moneysupermarket.com, the price comparison web site that does not feature meerkats or noisy opera singers in its adverts, brings out its interim results on Tuesday, and few surprises are expected, as the company release guidance on revenue, earnings and cash at the time of the pre-close statement."Our focus at the Interims will be on the cost base and how management's initiatives to improve efficiency and drive operational leverage could benefit the performance in H2 [second half] and beyond," said Brewin Dolphin, which recently downgraded the stock to "add" from "buy". Switching to the view of the economy, BarCap expects July's construction Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) to fall back from 53.6 to 53.0, but notes that the consensus is 53.1. By Tuesday morning, we will know how the voting went on the US debt reduction programme being put before the House of Representatives and the Senate on Monday evening. The expectation is that, after all the huffing and puffing and last minute brinkmanship, the programme will get the thumbs-up from both houses, but if, for some reason, the programme is rejected, expect to see a lot of red on your trading screen.INTERIMSBarclays, Capital Shopping Centres Group, Centamin Egypt Ltd., Collins Stewart Hawkpoint, Devro, Drax Group, Fresnillo, Meggitt, Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, Moneysupermarket.com Group, Prudential, SDL, Tullett Prebon, Weir Group, Xstrata, ZotefoamsINTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATESinclair (William) HoldingsINTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSPersonal Consumption Expenditures (US) (13:30)Personal Income (US) (13:30)Personal Spending (US) (13:30)Monetary Base (JPN)Producer Price Index (EU) (10:00)Auto Sales (US) (15:00)Q2Centamin Egypt Ltd.IMSSFresnillo, FutureEGMSNewRiver Retail Ltd. (Reg S)AGMSHansa Trust, JPMorgan Brazil Inv Trust , MobileWave Group , Monks Inv Trust, QinetiQ Group, Umeco, VictoriaUK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSPMI Construction (09:30)FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEFramlington AIM VCT 2, Johnson Matthey, Norcros, TR Property Inv Trust, TR Property Inv Trust Sigma SharesINTERNATIONAL EARNINGSAllscripts Healthcare Solutions, BMW, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Post, Foster Wheeler, Hyatt Hotels, Papa Johns International, Pfizer--jh