Monday
Results: Südzucker, Alphabet, Hasbro, Whirlpool, Xerox.
Indicators: Euro zone composite, manufacturing and services PMI flash (Apr); German composite, manufacturing and services PMI flash (Apr); US composite, manufacturing and services PMI (Apr).
Meetings: Industry Europe: The Product Conference for software design (Dublin Castle); touRRoir global food and tourism forum (NUI Galway).
Forum aims to help industries
capitalise on tourist attractions
The Wild Atlantic Way was there for thousands of years before “a brand was put on it”, turning it into tourist and revenue gold.
It is an example held high by Margaret Jeffares, founder and managing director of Good Food Ireland, of how the food, drink, culture and tourism industries can capitalise on tourist attractions that have in themselves existed for generations.
On Monday and Tuesday in Galway, the 2018 touRRoir, held in association with The Irish Times, will discuss how best to strengthen existing and emerging collaborations.
“Never before has this been so important. It’s an indigenous industry and a repeatable business,” Ms Jeffares says.
“The objective that we want to get out of this is to show the importance of collaboration and the significant economic impact that they can have in growing business and driving jobs into destinations that wouldn’t necessarily [otherwise] be sustainable.”
About a third of tourist spending in Ireland goes to the food and drink sector. In the past there has not been a great awareness on the part of tourists as to the quality of the experience but it "exceeds expectations" when they get here.
The event will cover branding and marketing, creative enterprise and sustainable business themes. Speakers will include Eoghan O'Mara Walsh, chief executive of the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation (ITIC); Niall Tracey, director of marketing at Fáilte Ireland; Niall Rochford, general manager of Ashford Castle; and Jack Teeling, founder of the Teeling Whiskey Company.
Tuesday
Results: Kuehne + Nagel, Caterpillar, Coca-Cola, Harley-Davidson, Lockheed Martin.
Indicators: UK public sector net borrowing (Mar), business optimism index (Q2), industrial trends orders (Apr); German business climate, current conditions and expectations (Apr); US house price index (Feb), consumer confidence (Apr).
Meetings: Microsoft Data and BI Summit for analysts and data professionals (Convention Centre Dublin).
Wednesday
Results: CRH (trading update), Facebook, Boston Scientific, Trinity Biotech, eBay, Whitbread, Boeing, Ford, PayPal, Twitter, Viacom, Visa.
Meetings: AIB Group AGM (RDS, Dublin 4); Glanbia AGM (Lyrath Estate Hotel, Kilkenny); Tullow Oil – agm (Building 9, Chiswick Park, London); BizExpo 2018 for Small and Medium Enterprise sector (Citywest Hotel, Saggart, Co Dublin).
CRH results likely to be under the weather
The relentless winter of 2018 is something everyone will be glad to see the back of, not least those companies whose early year performances have been a little under the weather.
With a trading update on Wednesday (and an agm Thursday), CRH is expected to shiver, if only slightly, at the prospect of its inclement Q1 experience.
"Obviously for construction companies, there is less activity in the winter than the summer and that's even more the case for CRH given the heavy materials side in the US – not many roads are repaired," said Investec's head of research Gerard Moore, explaining that the first quarter of CRH's asphalt business only accounts for about 10 per cent of the year.
“I think the weather is going to be a big feature in the entire market, especially for building materials, and especially for CRH.”
This anticipated “downbeat” update could also reflect a slight delay in the company’s acquisition of US cement-maker Ash Grove.
As for its agm, that follows recent calls for investors to block €10 million in executive pay. Profits grew by 15 per cent to €2 billion last year, and CRH is to ask shareholders to vote for its remuneration report, detailing €8.66 million for chief executive Albert Manifold and €1.9 million for finance director Senan Murphy last year.
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) has recommended that shareholders vote against.
Thursday
Results: Intel, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Microsoft, Amazon, American Airlines, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Expedia Group, General Motors, Hilton Worldwide Holdings, PepsiCo, Starbucks, Time Warner, UPS.
Indicators: Irish overseas travel (Mar); UK finance mortgage approvals (Mar); German consumer confidence (May).
Meetings: Mincon Group agm (Park Inn by Radisson, Shannon); ECB interest rate decision; ESRI and UCD seminar "The Origins of Firm Heterogeneity" (ESRI, Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin 2).
Friday
Results: Colgate-Palmolive, Exxon Mobil.
Indicators: Irish consumer confidence (Apr), retail sales (Mar); Euro zone business and consumer confidence (Apr), services, economic and industrial sentiment (Apr), consumer inflations expectations (Apr); UK consumer confidence (Apr), house prices (Apr), GDP (Q1); German unemployment (Apr); US GDP (Q1).