Next week on the stock market

Legal & General (Mon 16 Nov): Prepares to deliver its first-ever quarterly trading update

Legal & General kicks off a new era on Monday with its first-ever quarterly trading update. There's no track record to compare against and no analyst call, so it's hard to know how much detail we'll get.

Pension risk transfers (PRT), where L&G takes on company pension schemes, should be the highlight. Deals tend to bunch up in the second half, and the big Wood and UBS transactions should give volumes a lift. Volumes of around £4.8bn are expected for the quarter. That's more than double what was written in the whole first half, and margins should edge up too.

Asset management outflows are expected to continue, but capital looks in good shape, and the solvency ratio is expected to have climbed above 210%.

For us, guidance is the thing to watch. Management already expects this year's earnings growth to beat the top of its 6-9% target range, so any firmer detail would be welcome.

Nvidia (Tue 17 Nov): Plenty of questions as it eyes up its first $100bn-plus quarter

Nvidia heads into third-quarter results without Jensen Huang at the helm for the first time in its history. Colette Kress is now interim CEO and is staying on as CFO, so expect succession to dominate the questions. We doubt there'll be much clarity on a permanent replacement this soon. The business will need to do the talking.

Management guided to revenue of around $108bn, which would mark Nvidia's first-ever $100bn-plus quarter. Markets expect a touch more, and we think $110-$113bn is the bar to clear. Gross margin is the other key number. It's guided at 74%, but higher memory costs are expected to push it lower in the fourth quarter.

The bigger focus is next year. Nvidia has pointed to around 70% revenue growth, with supply rather than demand holding it back. Expect plenty of questions on whether the US midterm results change the AI buildout landscape. We expect management to play down any impact, and we agree. But with so much uncertainty now in the air, there’s a long road ahead to regaining investor confidence.