The week ahead

THE half-year results season will get under way this week with figures from Rolls-Royce and GlaxoSmithKline.

GlaxoSmithKline chief executive Andrew Witty will present his first set of results on Wednesday after succeeding Jean-Pierre Garnier in May.

Stockbroker Charles Stanley is expecting pre-tax profits of £1.9 million for the three months to 30 June, just above the consensus for £1.84m.

A slowing UK economy is expected to hit the results of mobile phone giant Vodafone when it issues a trading update tomorrow. Broker Lehman Brothers is expecting a slowdown in Vodafone's UK organic revenue growth, to 3.4 per cent during the first quarter compared to the previous year. Vodafone's first-quarter revenues are expected to be around £9.8 billion, compared to £8.2bn for the year before.

Engines giant Rolls-Royce will reveal how it is faring in challenging conditions when it issues interim results on Thursday. Chief executive Sir John Rose warned investors at the firm's AGM in May that the credit squeeze and increased fuel costs were putting pressure on airline operators.

Rolls-Royce landed almost $15bn (£7.7bn) in new orders during the first three months of the year, including a $2bn deal from US Airways for its Trent 700 engines.

Pizza delivery firm Domino's will reveal today whether it has managed to keep up some impressive sales growth this year. Like-for-like sales rose 13.3 per cent during the 16 weeks to 20 April, up from 11 per cent in the first six weeks. The performance contrasted sharply with gloomy figures from other high street operators.

E-commerce sales surged by 61 per cent to £32.2m in 2007, and were up 95 per cent in the first 16 weeks of 2008 to £15.3m, accounting for 21 per cent of all UK deliveries.

Broker Investec says Domino's franchise-based model was unlikely to be affected by any consumer weakness.

The Bank of England's dilemma over runaway inflation and slowing economic growth will be laid bare on Wednesday, when minutes of the latest interest rate meeting are published. Rate-setters on the monetary policy committee held borrowing costs at 5 per cent this month, despite mounting signs of economic gloom fuelling fears over a potential recession.

But with inflation rocketing half a percentage point to 3.8 per cent in June – nearly double the government's 2 per cent target – any scope for an interest rate cut to boost economic growth looks scarce. July's minutes could reveal more pressure within the MPC for an interest rate hike to bring rising prices back down.

The latest official indication of whether the UK is heading for recession is published on Friday. Data from the Office for National Statistics will reveal how the country's gross domestic product has fared during the second quarter to 30 June. GDP growth was 0.3 per cent higher in the first three months – a figure revised down from 0.4 per cent – thanks to a halving in the country's core service sector output.

This comprises more than 70 per cent of UK economic activity and grew by only 0.3 per cent in the first quarter, with the performance for business services and finance notably weaker as the credit crunch continued to take its toll.

And a rise of 0.4 per cent in manufacturing output was offset by falls in energy extraction and supply.

The ONS also revised down its annual GDP growth figure for the UK to 2.3 per cent from 2.5 per cent.