France absorbs election results and Starmer sets off on UK tour

Hello and welcome to the working week.

We start the week as the dust settles on the results of the French parliamentary elections.

While it might not be quite the storming of the Bastille, which France commemorates this coming weekend, there will be much for the markets and commentators to digest.

Want to know more about the results? Send your questions, then join an FT Live news Q&A at midday on Monday when European comment editor Tony Barber, companies editor Anne-Sylvaine Chassany and Europe Express editor Laura Dubois will be providing answers.

This is also the first full week in the job for newly elected British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. If you want to know a bit more about him, read UK political editor George Parker’s entertaining Person in the News profile. Starmer will be flying to Washington for his first international engagement, the Nato summit commemorating 75 years of the military alliance, a chance for him to rub shoulders with US President Joe Biden, his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other western leaders.

It’s a thin week for economic reports — the best being perhaps a monthly update on UK GDP — but this is counterbalanced by a fresh run of corporate news, notably the beginning of Wall Street’s quarterly earnings reports. It is likely to be a lacklustre quarter for these businesses. High interest rates have slowed lending and borrowers are starting to default. However, there was a rebound in investment banking of late.

JPMorgan Chase has raised expectations for its investment banking sales growth during the quarter, predicting these would be up 25 per cent to 30 per cent from a year earlier, about twice the sales growth it had previously forecast.

Investors more comfortable with the economy are willing to jump into riskier bets than they were a year ago. So there has been a surge in debt offerings. This means profits could be up significantly at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, which report the following week.

One more thing . . . 

We find ourselves in the crescendo of summer sports tournaments. If you are eagerly awaiting the Euro 2024 football tournament final on Sunday, I strongly recommend reading columnist Gideon Rachman’s captivating pen portrait of his time following the England team around Germany.

If Wimbledon is more your thing, we have a whole report on the business of tennis.

However you plan to spend the next seven days, I wish you well. If you want to share any highlights, or perhaps items you think I should add into next week’s summary, drop me a line at jonathan.moules@ft.com. If you are reading this from your inbox, just hit reply.

Key economic and company reports

Here is a more complete list of what to expect in terms of company reports and economic data this week.

Monday

• Hipgnosis general meeting of shareholders to vote on the proposed acquisition of the company by Blackstone

• Former Co-operative Bank chair Paul Flowers takes part in a plea hearing in a Manchester courtroom charged with fraud by abuse of position between June 2016 and October 2017

• Israel: interest rate announcement

• UK: Recruitment & Employment Confederation-KPMG jobs report

• Results: Ferrexpo Q2 production report, Repsol Q2 trading statement, Unite Group trading update and Q2 fund valuations

Tuesday

• US Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell presents his monetary policy report to the Senate Banking Committee in Washington

• UK: BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor

• Results: Hunting trading statement, Kinnevik HY, OMV Q2 trading update, Vistry Group trading update

Wednesday

• Bank of England chief economist Huw Pill gives a speech at Asia House in London

• New Zealand: rate-setting announcement

• Opec July Oil Market Report

• Results: Barratt Developments trading update, Grafton Group trading update, The Gym Group HY trading update, Liontrust Asset Management Q1 trading statement, Manchester United Q3, PageGroup Q2 trading update, SSP Group Q3 trading update, JD Wetherspoon trading update

Thursday

• Takeover Panel deadline for Bellway to either announce a firm intention to make an offer for Crest Nicholson or say it does not intend to make an offer

• IEA July Oil Market Report

• South Korea: gaming group Shift Up expected to start trading on the stock market after raising $313mn in a popular Seoul IPO

• UK: May GDP estimate. Also, RICS Residential Market Survey

• Results: ConAgra Brands Q4, Delta Air Lines Q2, Fast Retailing Q3, Galliford Try trading update, Hays Q4 trading statement, Jet2 FY, MJ Gleeson trading statement, PepsiCo Q2, Severn Trent Q1 trading update ahead of AGM, Tata Consultancy Services Q1, Trustpilot trading statement, Wood Group trading statement, Workspace Group Q1 business update

Friday

• Results: Ashmore Group Q4, Bank of New York Mellon Q2, Citigroup Q2, JPMorgan Chase Q2, Wells Fargo Q2

World events

Finally, here is a rundown of other events and milestones this week.

Monday

• UK: Church of England General Synod gathering in York discusses services to bless same-sex couples, with an alliance of congregation leaders threatening to break away over the plans. Tuesday is the 40th anniversary of lightning setting fire to York Minster, seen by some at the time as an omen from God

• US: New York court hearing for former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, as prosecutors seek a retrial on rape and sexual assault charges

Tuesday

• French Guiana: Arianespace Ariane 6 rocket launch, for the inaugural test flight of the European Space Agency’s newest rocket

• US: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testifies at the annual House committee hearing in Washington on the state of the international financial system

• US: Nato members gather for a three-day meeting in Washington to celebrate 75 years of the military alliance

Wednesday

• Thailand: court hearing in a case to remove Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin over the appointment to his cabinet of a lawyer who was imprisoned for contempt of court. Srettha, a real estate tycoon who entered politics with the ruling Pheu Thai party last year, denies the accusations

• US: deadline for former president Donald Trump to file arguments as to why his recent criminal conviction should be set aside following the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity

Thursday

• 90th birthday of Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani

• UK: Eleventh Night in Northern Ireland, where bonfires are traditionally lit in many Loyalist areas to commemorate the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 when Protestant King William of Orange defeated the Catholic King James II. This 2021 FT Magazine piece explains more about the anniversary

Friday

Saturday

• South Korea: Asian Economic Development Conference begins in Seoul

• UK: Omar Berrada becomes Manchester United chief executive

• UK: Wimbledon tennis tournament women’s singles final in London

Sunday

• France: Bastille Day celebrations

• Germany: Euro 2024 men’s football tournament final in the Olympiastadion in Berlin

• UK: Wimbledon tennis tournament men’s singles final in London

• US: Copa América football tournament final in Miami Gardens, Florida