Next week on the stock market

JD Sports had a shaky start to the year, but things have since picked up, with both sales and profits moving higher over the first half. It was pleasing to see Europe, North America and Asia Pacific markets all posting double-digit sales growth. But the UK market remains challenging and volatile, and full-year profit guidance got a small downgrade as a result.

Recent retail sector data points have pointed to increased discounting at shops to help keep the tills ringing. JD’s trying to offset this by tightening its belt and streamlining operations. We’re hoping that means there won’t be further downgrades to the full-year outlook in next week's results. We’re also keen to hear how the integration of US-based Hibbett is progressing. The deal has substantially increased the group’s footprint in the US, but there’s a lot of work to do to make sure a deal of this size pulls in the expected benefits.

Nvidia’s guidance suggests that next week’s third-quarter results will deliver revenue growth of around 80% to $32.5bn. Markets forecasts expect that number to be a little higher. If NVIDIA continues its strong run of beating expectations, things could be better still but there are no guarantees. There’s likely to be more emphasis however on the outlook for the final three months of the year, where consensus is currently looking for revenue of $36.6bn.

Any steer as to how well the recently launched ultra-fast Blackwell chip is selling will also be closely scrutinised. There’s no shortage of demand as the likes of Meta, Microsoft, Google, Amazon look to gain an edge in the AI race. But there remain some unanswered questions about NVIDIA’s supply chain’s ability to keep pace.

Halma’s expected to keep things ticking over in next week’s half-year results with organic revenue growth, underlying operating margin expansion, and strong cash generation all on show. We’ve already had some trading details back at the end of September and performance isn’t shooting the lights out. But that’s kind of what Halma does well - consistent delivery in the face of varied economic climates.

We’ll have our eyes open for any detail on the Healthcare businesses where budget constraints are keeping a lid on customer orders. Aside from that, it’s the usual acquisition pipeline commentary that’s worth watching for, given the strategy relies as much on acquisitions as it does organic growth.