Next week on the stock market

It’s been a tough period for luxury powerhouse LVMH, with sales coming under pressure and missing market forecasts by a wide margin last quarter. Price hikes in the Fashion and Leather goods division weren’t enough to offset falling volumes, and Wines & Spirits continued to struggle against a backdrop of weak Chinese demand.

Despite the slowdown, there are some early signs of sentiment beginning to improve. Fellow luxury conglomerate Richemont recently kicked off earnings season with a bang, posting double-digit jewellery revenue growth driven by uplifts across both Europe and the US.

The excitement appears to have buoyed other names in the sector too, helping LVMH regain its spot as Europe’s most valuable company. But whether LVMH can retain this crown will depend somewhat on its ability to meet market expectations, which are looking for full-year revenue to fall by no more than 2.2% to €84.3bn from next week’s results, before returning to growth the following year.

Next week’s trading update by CVS Group should give us a steer as to whether growth has picked up towards the end of the first half, after soft demand in the UK led to flat like-for-like sales over the first four months of the period.

Any comments on the ongoing enquiry by the Competition & Markets Authority will also be seized upon, although we’re not expecting the initial findings until later in the year.

We’ll also be looking for an update on business in the increasingly important Australian division and whether there’s been any change in the pace of acquisitions down-under, and whether debt-levels remain manageable as the group expands.

Shell’s recent trading statement revealed that while most business units have been trading broadly in line with previous guidance, the production and liquification ranges for integrated gas has been lowered. These are set to come in below third quarter levels, reflecting planned maintenance at its processing facility in Qatar, as well as the timing of shipments from offshore gas fields. The weakness should be partially offset by an improved outlook for corporate costs.

As ever investors are likely to have a watchful eye on the outlook for shareholder distributions, with buyback programs of at least $3bn announced in each of the last 12 quarters. Of course, no further payouts can be guaranteed. And with a new financial year underway expect an update on the company’s capital allocation priorities.