Friday preview: October US non-farm payrolls, Apple in focus

(Sharecast News) - All eyes will be on the US at the end of the week as the government publishes the all-important monthly non-farm payrolls report.Quite important too, first thing in the morning investors on this side of the Pond will be scanning the headlines for news of tech giant Apple's latest quarterly update and markets' reaction.For the US October jobs report, analysts at Barclays Research are forecasting a pick-up in hiring from the prior month's 134,000 pace to 200,000.However, just as in September, the US was hit during the survey period for the jobs report by a hurricane, Michael, leading some economists to caution that almost anything was possible with the data.In any case, just as important as the figures on hiring would be the latest wage numbers, with Barclays anticipating a rise in the year-on-year rate of growth in average hourly earnings from 2.8% in the month before to 3.2% (consensus: 3.1%).As for Apple, RBC believed the company would top the Street's numbers "driven by multiple factors including new products, ASP uplift, benign memory costs, Services tailwind, and continued buybacks."The broker's forecasts were for Apple to report fiscal fourth quarter sales of $62.2bn for an EPS of $2.80.No major data releases were scheduled in the UK. The corporate calendar in Britain meanwhile is rather light at the end of the week, with just a handful of companies scheduled to update markets.Among those is Paddy Power Betfair, with analysts at Numis forecasting that the bookie will post third quarter sales up by 5% on the year to reach £461m, despite which operating profits were pegged at £108m, or a fall of 11%.Impacting on the latter, analyst Richard Stuber said, would be the move to consolidate loss-making FanDuel and the ramping-up of investment in the US.In terms of the competitive backdrop, Stuber said that the company's shares, along with those of the broader sector, had been "struggling, faced with increasingly onerous regulatory constraints and rising taxes". Also due to update investors on Friday was interdealer broker ICAP.Given how August and September had been quiet months, Numis was anticipating third quarter revenues of just £432m, for a gain of 2.9%.But heightened volatility in October meant the outlook statement would be "upbeat with recent volatility paving the way for a relatively good Q4 and progress made improving broker morale and reducing staff turnover."Furthermore, changing hands on a yield of 6.3% and valued at 8.4 its estimated 2019 EPS of 32.1p, the shares were "well underpinned".To take note of, IAG is scheduled to hold its Capital Markets Day today.Friday November 02INTERIMSSystem1 GroupINTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEBBA Aviation, Belvoir Lettings, Bodycote, Cello Health, Cenkos Securities, EMIS Group, Fisher (James) & Sons, Good Energy Group, Johnson Service Group, Judges Scientific, Learning Technologies Group , M. P. Evans Group, OneSavings Bank, Rightmove, Unite Group, Volga Gas, Weir Group, XLMediaQUARTERLY PAYMENT DATEF & C UK High Income Trust , Scottish Inv TrustINTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSBalance of Trade (US) (12:30)Non-Farm Payrolls (US) (12:30)PMI Manufacturing (GER) (08:55)Unemployment Rate (US) (12:30)DRILLING REPORTGlencoreSPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEF & C UK High Income Trust B Shares, Kubera Cross-Border Fund Ltd.TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTSGlencore , Paddy Power BetfairUK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSPMI Construction (09:30)FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEBrooks Macdonald Group, Daejan Holdings, Hargreaves Services