The corporate agenda tends to be mercifully light at the start of January, save for the retailers' Christmas updates, starting with Next Plc (LON:NXT).
The fashion firm releases a trading update on Wednesday covering the important Christmas trading period, and shareholders have every right to be a tad nervous after reports that the Boxing Day sales were not the crowd-pullers they once used to be, possibly because of the increasing adoption in the UK of the US practice of "Black Friday" sales at the end of November.
"There are some hopes that trading could have been better especially given the more seasonal weather pattern and we'll wait to see if shoppers have been seeking bargains on Next's online store instead; however, the last trading update wasn't very encouraging as the group reported sales falling by 7.7% partly due to the pressures faced by the consumer and online competition and this will no doubt show up in the full year sales figures," said Graham Spooner, an investment research analyst at The Share Centre.
The company has a reputation for under-promising and - in happier times - over-delivering, so the statement might be on the pessimistic side, although Danny Cox at Hargreaves Lansdown notes that Next set the tone for 2017 when it warned that rising inflation was putting the brakes on consumer spending, and it proved on the money with that one.
"Customers shifting from the high street to the web presents Next's Directory division with an opportunity, but the rise of online-only players like Boohoo and ASOS means picking up online sales is no formality, while more traditional retailers are also upping their digital game. We'll be interested to see what impact recent upgrades to Next's mobile and online offerings have had on this part of the business," Cox said.
"With online taking share and in-store sales in reverse, it may seem odd for Next to continue opening new stores; however, CEO Lord Wolfson reckons the costs can be recovered within two years and that physical stores are actually complementary to growing online sales because they offer customers a convenient location for collection and returns," Cox added.
Deutsche Bank (DB) said it expects share buybacks to continue, but fears the brand may be suffering as a result of consumers trading down to cheaper brands.
"Clothing & Home sales densities at Next appear to have slipped below M&S's despite the reduction in promotional activity at M&S," DB suggested.
"In FY Jan-18 Next is expecting to see broadly flat full price sales in its combined Retail and Directory divisions. These two main divisions represent its stores in UK & Ireland, and its online business in UK & worldwide plus its customer loan book, respectively.
Jefferies, meanwhile, is predicting Next will announce a 0.2% year-on-year decline in total full-price brand sales, which at least represents an improvement on the preceding quarters in 2017.
"Within this we forecast Directory online sales growth of 10%, as we expect Next to benefit from improved product ranges, a better online offer (e.g. universal shopping cart and improved search engine) and more delivery options (e.g. Next unlimited and one hour delivery slots). This is a slight slowdown from the 13% in 3Q but is against a tougher comp of 5% (versus 0% in 3Q). Note this also includes Label and international online sales, which we forecast to grow 40% and 24% respectively in FY18E.
Jefferies has pencilled in Next Retail's sales will be down 8% year-on-year, or 10% on a like-for-like (LFL) basis.
It expects Next to confirm fiscal 2018 guidance of profit before tax ranging from ?692mln and ?742mln.
On the macro front, investors will be keeping an eye out for the release of the minutes from the December meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Federal Reserve's policy-making committee.
US interest rates were hiked by a quarter of a point but this was largely expected, and further rises are inevitable, but the question remains whether the minutes offered any clue as to the FOMC's preferred timetable.
Trading update: Next Plc (LON:NXT)
AGM: Applied Graphene Materials PLC (LON:AGM)
Economic data: UK construction PMI; US construction spending; US FOMC Meeting minutes