Friday preview: British Airways, Fyffes, US payrolls

It's looking like a subdued end to a quiet week for results with the field left wide open for airline British Airways and banana importer Fyffes to garner all the attention, at least until US non-farm payrolls data is released in the afternoon.

British Airways will announce its August traffic and capacity statistics. According to UBS, the airline was focused more on yields than volumes in July, which led to a 2.6% fall in traffic. The bank is expecting British Airways to announce a modest increase in traffic in Augst.

Fyffes said back in April that it is still on target to meet its adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) projection range of EUR14m-EUR18m in 2010 even though banana selling prices had weakened in the early part of the year.

The profit will be more second half weighted this year. Fyffes made adjusted EBITDA of EUR20.7m in 2009, with EUR18.8m of that coming in the first half of 2009.

Adjusted EBITDA does not include any exceptional items or contribution from 40%-owned Blackrock International Land.

A key issue for the company is the implementation of the agreed reduction in EU banana import duty during 2010. The European Association of Banana Producers (APEB) has convened a meeting in Paris for September 7 in order to agree on a strategy for the negotiation of compensation, so there are still obstacles to overcome.

In the US, non-farm payrolls for August are tipped to have fallen by 100,000. That would represent the third month in a row that jobs have been lost, though lay-offs of temporary workers employed to help conduct the US census has distorted figures over the summer. With the effects of the census-taking excluded, economists suggest that around 30,000 jobs may have been added in August. Non-farm payrolls fell by 131,000 in July.

The focus is increasingly on private sector employment levels, however, and the expectation here is for little change from July.

The unemployment rate is expected to edge higher to 9.6% from 9.5% in July.

INTERIMS
Fyffes

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Invesco English & International Trust, Invista Real Estate Investment Management Holdings, RAB Capital

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Retail Sales (GER) (07:00)
PMI Services (GER) (08:55)
PMI Composite (GER) (08:55)
PMI Composite (EU) (09:00)
PMI Services (EU) (09:00)
PMI Services (FRA) (09:00)
Retail Sales (EU) (10:00)
Unemployment Rate (US) (13:30)
Non-Farm Payrolls (US) (13:30)
ISM Non-Manufacturing (US) (15:00)
ISM Services (US) (15:00)

GMS
Firestone Diamonds, Randall & Quilter Investment

AGMS
MDM Engineering Group, Prosperity Minerals Holdings

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Official Reserves (09:30)
PMI Composite (09:30)
PMI Services (09:30)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Cranswick, RPC Group