Friday preview: UK retail sales in focus amid quiet corporate calendar

(Sharecast News) - There are no FTSE 350 corporate releases scheduled for Friday, but on the macro front, investors will turn their attention to public sector net borrowing figures and retail sales data for April.

Michael Hewson at MCH Market Insights said that if last week's BRC and Barclays retail sales figures are anything to go by then the April retail sales numbers "could well be a car crash on an epic scale".

"Consumer spending fell 0.1% in April, the first annual decline since late 2024," he noted. "Spending on credit and debit card spending slipped back in April after gaining 0.9% in March, while BRC numbers showed that retail sales fell 3% year on year in April. Both of the surveys showed consumers eschewing big ticket and travel expenditure with Barclays saying that travel spending fell 5.7%, although the timing of Easter may well have also played a part.

"With concerns about rising energy prices at the forefront of consumer thinking it would appear that many are taking a safety-first approach when it comes to discretionary spending. Having seen retail sales expand at 0.7% in March the prospect of any sort of gain in April remains very much an outlier especially given the sharp increases in various domestic bills that will have kicked in during April and the start of a new tax year."

The GFK consumer confidence survey for May is also due in the UK on Friday, while German first-quarter GDP figures, the latest German GfK consumer confidence survey and the Ifo survey for May will all be released.

In the US, the Michigan consumer sentiment index for May will be released at 1500 BST.