Marks & Spencer Share News (MKS)

It's been a big week for retailers and the trend continues with high street bellwether Marks & Spencer giving a trading update on Thursday covering the company's second quarter.Panmure Gordon predicts UK like for like (LFL) year on year sales growth of 2.5%, with the general merchandise arm growing faster at +3.25% than the food side (+1.75%). "This compares with a consensus range for group LFLs of 1.3%-4.6% and is just below an average estimate of 3.2%," the broker notes.Panmure's projections represent a slow down in growth from the first quarter. UBS and Execution Noble are also expecting a slowdown in LFL sales, at least on the general merchandise side of the business.However, retail sales data from the British Retail Consortium, the Confederation of British Industry and the Office of National Statistics have all been positive over the July to September period covered by Marks & Spencer's trading update. JP Morgan Cazenove, meanwhile, thinks Marks & Spencer (M&S) is "probably outperforming peers in terms of trading."Peel Hunt is also optimistic about general merchandise trading, It is predicting LFL sales increase of 4.5%; food sales it sees growing by 2.5% on a LFL basis, which would represent an acceleration in growth from the first quarter.Elsewhere on the high street car parts and bikes seller Halfords will give an interim management statement that will coincide with a tour by investment analysts of the company's new distribution centre in Coventry. Singer Capital Markets thinks the company's second quarter performance is hard to gauge. Given the warehouse disruption the company has suffered, which Singer thinks could dampen sales by around 2% over the quarter, and the fairly miserable UK weather in August and September, the figures may be unexciting. It is forecasting a LFL sales decline of around 4-5% in the core retail business."Management will have budgeted for disruption (warehouse moves of this scale are rarely issue free) and are expected to have worked hard on margin gains and cost savings in order to offset the sales shortfall. The trip to the new DC [distribution centre] should help to settle any lingering doubts with the focus now shifting towards the planned £4m of cost savings," Singer said. KBC Peel Hunt also thinks second quarter sales will show a declining trend. "Having reported Q1 [first quarter] LFL sales declines of 2.1%, management had initially guided for an improved Q2 performance. However, reflecting lower footfall levels and the impact of the warehouse move, which may be 150-200bps [1.5 to 2 percentage points] of the LFL decline, we believe LFL sales may have fallen by 4-5% over Q2," the broker predicted.Fashion chain Ted Baker has seen its share surge 13% in the last week so there may be a lot of potential profit-takers waiting with their mouse pointers hovering over the sell button if the group's half year figures fail to impress.Panmure Gordon is predicting revenue growth of 18.4% to £90.7m and an earnings before interest and tax improvement of 25.2% to £8.0m for the 28 weeks ended 14 August."Two new stores opened in the US over the summer, in Arizona (Phoenix), in July and in Santa Monica (California) in August. We understand that the Chicago and New York stores are still to open. This marks significant space expansion for Ted Baker - at the financial year end, the company had nine US stores and two outlets," the broker noted.On the economic front, the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) announces its interest rate decision and quantitative easing (QE) policy on Thursday.There seems little doubt that it is the QE decision that is more eagerly awaited; it would be a major shock were the MPC to hike interest rates, though renegade committee member Andrew Sentance will likely remain the lone dissenting voice on this front. Even though the inflation rate remains stubbornly above 3% and well above the Bank's target level of 2%, the economic revival is probably still too fragile to countenance lifting the cost of borrowing just yet.In fact, the economic revival is so fragile that the MPC, mindful of the effects that the proposed cutbacks in public spending could have on the economy, may decide to resume QE after an eight-month interval.The pound has been losing ground to the euro on expectations that the MPC is becoming increasingly receptive to policymaker Adam Posen's calls for more quantitative easing.Last week, Posen said more money should be pumped into the UK economy to keep the recovery on track and avoid a similar fate to the slump that hit Japan in the 1990s, but he subsequently said that he was open to persuasion that his enthusiasm for a revival of QE may be premature.INTERIMSTed BakerINTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEAbbey Protection, Amlin, Antofagasta, Croda International, Eurasian Natural Resources, GlobeOp Financial Services, Shire Plc, Shore CapitalQUARTERLY PAYMENT DATEGlaxoSmithKlineINTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSMachine Tool Orders (JPN)Leading Indicator Index (JPN) (05:00)Trade Balance (FRA) (07:45)Industrial Production (GER) (11:00)ECB Interest Rate (EU) (12:45)Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)Consumer Credit (US) (20:00)Q3Sandvine CorporationGMSNordic LandFINALSMatchtech, Nighthawk EnergyIMSSHays, Rank GroupEGMSBlackrock International LandAGMSIG Group Holdings, Kirkland Lake Gold, Ocean Power Technologies, ZetarTRADING ANNOUNCEMENTSHalfords Group, Marks & Spencer Group, Michael Page International, VictrexUK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSHalifax House Price Index (09:30)Industrial Production (09:30)Manufacturing Production (09:30)BoE Interest Rate Decision (12:00)FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEMid Wynd International Inv Trust