View our top six stories to look out for this week (27 November-1 December), plus our key company earnings schedule.

The week ahead: OPEC meeting & UK bank stress tests

Our Chief Market Analyst, Michael Hewson, examines the performance of the US dollar as well as looking ahead to the latest Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meeting and UK bank stress tests.

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UK banks to be put under pressure
Tuesday: This year’s UK bank stress tests are expected to be much more onerous than they were last year. The Bank of England has already warned UK lenders that they need to boost their capital buffers due to concerns over rising consumer credit. The new seven-year projections have been introduced to enhance resilience in the event of a breakdown in Brexit talks, as well as the prospect of a lower-for-longer interest rate environment. The BoE will also be modelling a more extreme slowdown scenario with a global contraction of 2.4%, and China contraction of 1.2%.

Could US GDP be revised lower?
Wednesday: The interim Q3 GDP numbers showed the US economy grew 3% in the most recent quarter. This was a big improvement on Q2, but it’s likely that a lot of the data from the end of Q3 was omitted, including significant hits from hurricanes Harvey and Irma. This means we could see a slowdown in subsequent readings as more data becomes available. 

Will Greene King shareholders be feeling lager than life?
Thursday: The UK pubs sector has been a mixed a bag since last year’s referendum – Greene King’s shares are down 35% since the vote. This is due to consumer woes, plus costs relating to its recent integration of Spirit Pub, which saw profit for 2016 fall 2.6% in June’s final numbers. The company has had a disappointing start to the new fiscal year, with sales on the weak side as consumers cut back. The company will be hoping for a decent Christmas period to make up for the poor summer, where management blamed the July weather for its disappointing September update. 

Could the Daily Mail be making headlines?
Thursday: It’s not been a good year for shareholders of Daily Mail and General Trust, which owns Britain’s bestselling daily newspaper and the Mail Online. The company was buffeted by a series of downgrades in the first half of the year. In May it saw an 11% decline in underlying profit, and a 12% decline in advertising revenue for print. However, the declines were offset by a 19% increase in digital revenues for the Mail Online. Since September the share price has slowly recovered in anticipation of an improvement from its digital offering, as well as the possibility that it might sell its free Metro newspaper. 

What will latest global manufacturing PMIs reveal?
Friday: Recent PMI data from October has shown some evidence of a slowdown in economic activity, after big gains in the summer months and third quarter. This week’s final November readings for China, Japan, Europe and the US are likely to show further softening, but not to an extent that would suggest the start of a sustained slowdown. 

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Index dividend schedule

If you trade indices, dividend payments from an index's constituent shares can result in either a credit or debit to your account. 
View this week's indices dividend drop points table

Company announcements are subject to change. All the events listed above were correct at the time of writing.

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