As the first full trading week of January comes around, the flow of post-Christmas retail trading updates picks up following the mixed news from Next Plc and Debenhams PLC (LON:DEB), with all the UK food retailers set to report, as well as high street stalwart Marks & Spencer Group PLC (LON:MKS).
The UK's major supermarket chains have all been grappling tough competition from discounters Aldi and Lidl, higher cost inflation and weaker consumer confidence.
Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC (LON:MRW), J Sainsbury plc (LON:SBRY), Tesco PLC (LON:TSCO) and John Lewis Partnership-owned Waitrose will show how well they fared in the face of such headwinds over Christmas.
First up, Morrisons on Tuesday is expected to reveal a slowdown in retail like-for-like (LFL) sales growth in the 10 weeks to 7 January, which makes up the bulk of its fourth quarter.
Deutsche Bank predicts a 1.0% increase over the period, compared to a 2.1% rise in the third quarter.
"Morrisons have a very tough comparative to cycle from last year," the bank's analysts said, "However, despite potentially disappointing sales at Morrisons, we expect consensus profit expectations to remain resilient."
Sainsbury's is also expected to show that LFL sales growth eased in its trading update on Wednesday as the group's increased share of clothing and general merchandise following the acquisition of Argos presents more volatility in a tough UK retail market.
Deutsche Bank sees the supermarket posting a 0.4% rise in retail LFL sales in the third quarter, down from 0.6% growth in the second quarter.
Tesco is likely to come out on top with the "most positive" Christmas trading update on Thursday on the back of its turnaround efforts, the bank added.
Deutsche predicts 1.7% growth in UK LFL sales in the third quarter and a 3.2% gain in the six-week Christmas trading period following a 2.1% rise in the second quarter.
The supermarket, whose ?3.7bn takeover of wholesale company Booker Group PLC (LON:BOK) was approved by regulators shortly before Christmas, resumed dividend payments for the first time in three years after reporting a surge in first half profits in October.
John Lewis, the parent company of upmarket supermarket Waitrose, will also post its Christmas trading update on Thursday. In its latest figures, it revealed Waitrose sales rose 4% in the week to 23 December compared to the same period a year earlier.
Lidl has overtaken Waitrose to become the UK's seventh largest supermarket chain as more hard-hit consumers shop at the discount grocer's expanding network of stores, according to industry figures from Kantar Worldpanel.
Away from the supermarkets, the focus on Thursday will also be on Marks and Spencer Group Plc (LON:MKS), which was once regarded as the bellwether of the retail sector, but now has a lower market capitalisation than AIM listed online operator ASOS plc (LON:ASC).
That reflects the changing characteristics of retail, where online is now the primary battleground.
Historically, Christmas has often ridden to the rescue of retailers but broker Jefferies reckons consumers will have spent cautiously over the yule-time period.
"As we have seen in recent quarters, we expect strong online and multi-channel retailers and the discounters to take share over the Christmas period," the broker said.
Jefferies is looking for M&S's LFL sales in its fiscal third quarter to be 3% lower year-on-year in the Clothing & Home division and down 1% in Food.
In November, M&S signalled that it will accelerate stores closures in an effort to make cost savings as it reported a 5.3% decline in profits in the six months to 30 September. UK like-for-like sales fell by 0.3%, including a 0.1% drop in food sales and a 0.7% decline in the struggling clothing and home division.
As chief executive Steve Rowe ramps up his turnaround plans, M&S is now said to be considering pulling out of dozens of building projects across the UK, and there may be more details on this in Thursday's announcement.
Meanwhile, mid cap fashion retailer Ted Baker PLC (LON:TED) has weathered the retail storm better than many in 2017, and on Wednesday will reveal whether it has continued to outperform.
The company posted a 7.3% year-on-year rise in revenue for the 13 weeks to November 11 despite a challenging retail environment.
Revenue growth was driven by its online business, which accounts for 19.2% of total retail sales. E-commerce sales increased by 30.5%.
The company said it remained confident of hitting full-year expectations though it added the caveat that this depended to some extent on Christmas trading.
Aside from the retail trading statement deluge, a trio of blue chip housebuilders will also provide updates in the coming week with investors hoping sentiment in the sector has been helped by UK government support in the last Budget.
Persimmon PLC (LON:PSN), Taylor Wimpey PLC (LON:TW.), and Barratt Developments PLC (LON:BDEV) will issue updates on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, while at the top of the week, the latest UK house price survey from mortgage lender Halifax will give a snapshot of overall market demand.
In spite of concern that the June 2016 Brexit vote would put a heavy brake on sentiment for the sector, the residential construction companies continued to report solid growth in sales, selling prices, and forward bookings in the first half of 2018.
However, sector updates in November were more mixed raising some concerns about the path in the coming year.
Back in November, Persimmon said its total sales rate per site was flat year-on-year due to tough comparatives in the year-ago period, which rose 14% with strong sales following the Brexit vote.
But the group said it was still fully sold up for the current year, with around ?909mln of forward sales reserved beyond 2017, an increase of 10% on the same period last year, and pricing remained "firm" across regional markets.
While in the same month, Taylor Wimpey said it had seen a strong performance in the second half although the current order book is lower than last year and costs are expected to rise.
The firm said building costs are expected to rise between 3% and 4% this year due to higher wages and increasing inflation on the price of building materials.
In Barratt Development's November update, the firm said it made a strong start to the financial year ending 30 June 2018, with net private reservations per average week of 268, compared to 265 the same period a year earlier.
Barratt's sales rate, however, was flat on the previous year and analysts raised concerns that the benefit of low interest rates and government schemes, such as Help to Buy, may not last.
Half of that worry was alleviated by the UK Budget changes to stamp duty for first time buyers later the same month, but worries over further hikes in UK interest rates in 2018 as inflation remains stubbornly above Bank of England forecasts remains a concerns.
In a recent sector review, analysts at Liberum Capital noted that the housebuilders outperformed by circa 30% in 2017, mainly due to strong first-time buyers and government help.
They added: "We do not see clear or present dangers for the cycle and expect continued resilience. But slower selling price rises and stubborn build cost inflation may curtail margin progress, limiting scope for outperformance to the growers: cheaper and with improving returns."
In the exploration sector, Tullow Oil plc's (LON:TLW) results so far for 2017 have been fairly encouraging and have shown a bit of a turnaround at the group, mainly as a result of the improved oil price.
Graham Spooner, investment research analyst at The Share Centre, thinks this should be even more of a feature in Wednesday's trading update as average oil prices headed closer to US$60 a barrel during the final quarter.
He thinks investors will also look at the group's operational performance from their TEN and Jubilee fields which were better in the prior two reporting periods leading management to upgrade overall production guidance for the year from West African operations to between 85,000 to 89,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
However, he added, it may be premature to expect management to comment on the debt situation which is large while investors should still expect some assets to be written off despite rising prices.
Interims from blue chip software firm Micro Focus International PLC (LON:MCRO) on Monday will reflect the major acquisition of Hewlett Packard's software assets (HPE) which was finally completed in early September, and the performance and prospects for those operations will dominate.
The FTSE 100 listed company has been trying to improve its operating profit margin and progress on that will also be of interest as will the level of cash generation.
Interims: Micro Focus International PLC (LON:MCRO)
Economic data: Halifax house prices
Trading updates: Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC (LON:MRW), Joules Group PLC (LON:JOUL); Persimmon PLC (LON:PSN); Robert Walters PLC (LON:RWA), SIG PLC (LON:SHI), Topps Tiles Plc (LON:TPT), Majestic Wine PLC (LON:MJW), Carr's Group PLC (LON:CARR), Ferrexpo PLC (LON:FXPO)
Interims: Games Workshop PLC (LON:GAW), Ilka PLC (LON:IKA)
Finals: Elegant Hotels PLC (LON:EHG); Nexus Infrastructure PLC (LON:NEXS); Safestore Holdings PLC (LON:SAFE)
Trading updates: J Sainsbury plc (LON:SBRY),Ted Baker PLC (LON:TED), Taylor Wimpey PLC (LON:TW.), Tullow Oil plc (LON:TLW), Marshalls PLC (LON:MSLH), Pagegroup PLC (LON:PAGE), Quiz Plc (LON:QUIZ)
Finals: Shoe Zone PLC (LON:SHOE)
Interims: Supergroup PLC (LON:SGP)
Economic data: UK trade data; UK industrial production; UK construction output; US wholesale trade
Trading updates: Tesco PLC (LON:TSCO), Booker PLC (LON:BOK), Marks & Spencer PLC (LON:MKS ), Boohoo.com PLC (LON:BOO), AO World PLC (LON:AO) Moss Bros Group plc (LON:MOSS), Mothercare plc (LON:MTC), John Lewis Partnership (John Lewis, Waitrose); Barratt Developments PLC (LON:BDEV), Hays plc (LON:HAS), Nichols plc (LON:NICL), Premier Oil PLC (LON:PMO), Rathbone Brothers PLC (LON:RAT)
FTSE 100 ex-dividends: Sky PLC (LON:SKY)
Economic data: US weekly jobless
Trading updates: Michelmersh Brick Holdings Plc (LON:MBH), Tarsus Group PLC (LON:TRS), XP Power Ltd. (LON:XPP)
Interims: Artemis Alpha Trust PLC (LON:ATS)
Economic data: US CPI; US retail sales