Friday preview: Greene King, Berkeley Group, US jobs

2nd Dec 2010 16:12

Thursday's results from brewing and pubs group Marston's were well received, throwing down a "top that" challenge to mid-cap sector peer Greene King,which brings out interim figures on Friday.The Abbot Ale brewer has Goldman Sachs in its corner; the US investment bank thinks the retail numbers will be impressive, with profit margins expected to show a year on year growth for the first time since the first half of fiscal 2006/7.Like most of its peers, Greene King has seen most, if not all, of its growth in recent times come from its food offering but Execution Noble is expecting so-called "wet sales" to bounce back, and reckons Greene King's "traditional pub offering" leaves it best placed to take advantage of any rebound.Housebuilder Berkeley Group's focus on the south-east of England should have stood it in good stead in the first half of its financial year.Demand in the nation's capital has been resilient, but "outside London, which is reliant on the UK domestic economy to a greater extent, a lack of credit availability and overall consumer confidence is a constraint to achieving an increase in transaction volumes at this point in the market cycle," the company said back in September.On the economic front, the big event comes from across the pond with the release of November's US non-farm payrolls data. Economists think payrolls increased by 145,000 in November, compared with a rise of 151,00 in October.INTERIMS Berkeley Group Holdings , Falkland Islands Holdings, Greene King INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE Balfour Beatty, DCC, Hilton Food Group, JZ Capital Partners Ltd., Laird, Marshalls, Norcon, Northern 2 VCT, Prime People, Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust, SThree, TDK Corp. QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE Frontline Ltd. INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS Retail Sales (GER) (07:00) PMI Services (FRA) (08:50) PMI Services (GER) (08:55) PMI Services (EU) (09:00) Retail Sales (EU) (10:00) Non-Farm Payrolls (US) (13:30) Unemployment Rate (US) (13:30) ISM Non-Manufacturing (US) (15:00) Business Inventories (US) (15:00) Factory Orders (US) (15:00) ISM Services (US) (15:00) GMS Red Rock Resources, Regency Mines FINALS Pursuit Dynamics SPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE JZ Capital Partners Ltd. AGMS @UK, Asian Citrus Holding, Aurora Russia Ltd., Ceres Power Holdings, Interior Services Group, Lok'n Store Group, Polo Resources Ltd. (DI), Waterman Group TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS SThree UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS Halifax House Price Index (09:30) Official Reserves (09:30) PMI Composite (09:30) PMI Services (09:30) FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE Ashmore Group, BlueBay Asset Management, James Halstead, Matchtech Group, Murgitroyd Group, United Carpets Group