Interest rates decisions in the US and UK will be the focus in the week ahead, along with earnings from a number of major companies.
Soaring oil prices as a result of the conflict in the Middle East has sparked fears that this will push broader inflation higher, creating more uncertainty around the direction of interest rates.
Investors will be keeping a close eye on rate decisions and commentary from the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England (BoE) for any indication on their outlook for inflation and interest rates.
In terms of earnings, Chinese tech giant Alibaba (9988.HK, BABA) is set to report, with investors looking for further growth from its investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing.
Another tech company set to release earnings is Micron Technology (MU), which has continued to see strong demand for its memory chips amid the AI boom.
In the UK, insurer Prudential (PRU.L) is slated to publish its full-year results, with shares have performed strongly last year following the company’s strategy change.
Meanwhile, pub chain JD Wetherspoon (JDW.L) will publish interim results and has already said it expects to report lower half-year profits than the same period last year.
Here’s more on what to expect:
Oil prices have surged since the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on 28 February, as the conflict has disrupted crude flows through the crucial Strait of Hormuz shipping route.
Concerns of prolonged disruption to global oil supply and an energy price shock, have led to fears that this could drive a resurgence in inflation. As a result, this has raised bets that central banks could delay interest rate cuts, or even hike them, this year.
Traders expect the Fed to maintain rates in the current 3.5% to 3.75% range at the end of its two-day meeting on Wednesday 18 March, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
Read more: UK house buyer demand dips as Iran crisis clouds interest rate outlook
The BoE is also expected to hold rates at 3.75% on Thursday. AJ Bell’s (AJB.L) investment experts Russ Mould, Danni Hewson and Dan Coatsworth said that the market’s view on the chance of rate cut on Thursday by the BoE “has gone from a shoo-in (80%-plus) to an extreme long shot (less than 9%)”.
They said that the markets will be watching closely for any signals on how the Fed and BoE “plan to deal with surging oil and gas prices and whether they see it as a short-term bump to look through, or a development that has significantly altered the prospects for inflation and interest rates in the longer term.”
“In the UK, the current betting is rates will remain flat for the rest of 2026 and beyond, with the odds weighted more in favour of a hike than a cut,” they said. “In the US, things look more finely balanced as the Fed awaits a change at the top later this spring.”
The Bank of Canada will also announce its latest interest rate decision on Wednesday, followed by decisions from the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan on Thursday.
In its second quarter results, published in November, Alibaba said that AI was contributing to an expanding share of its cloud revenues from external customers. The company said that it had deployed around CNY120bn (£13.2bn) of capital expenditure (capex) toward AI and cloud infrastructure over the past four quarters.
Total revenue came in at CNY247.8bn for the second quarter, up 5% year-on-year. Alibaba’s cloud intelligence business contributed CNY39.8bn of revenue, up 34% from the previous year. Diluted earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter was CNY0.55, down 71% year-on-year.
Read more: Stocks that are trending today
Derren Nathan, head of equity analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Alibaba’s third-quarter results are expected to show a continuing trend of top-line improvements and a shrinking bottom line as the Chinese conglomerate spends heavily on cloud computing and on-demand delivery services.”
He said that analyst are forecasting 33% growth in its cloud intelligence business, reflecting its high level of investment in this area and pivot to AI-related products.
“This part of the business is grabbing investor attention, but it’s a relatively small piece of the pie compared to the more established e-commerce division, which is facing intense competitive pressures,” he said.
Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares have ebbed lower over the past month, leaving the stock more than 7% in the red year-to-date.
Shares in Micron Technology have rocketed nearly 324% over the past year, thanks to strong financial performance, boosted by demand for its memory chips.
In its first quarter results, released in December, Micron posted record revenue of $13.64bn (£10.26bn), up from $8.71bn a year earlier and topping expectations of $12.95bn. Adjusted EPS of $4.78 jumped from $1.79 in the first quarter of its 2025 fiscal year and also beat estimates of $3.95.
For the second quarter, Micron has guided to revenue of $18.7bn, plus or minus $400m and diluted EPS of $8.42, plus or minus $0.20.
Stocks: Create your watchlist and portfolio
In a note on 11 March, Deutsche Bank (DBK.DE) reiterated its “buy” rating on the stock ahead of the earnings.
Melissa Weathers, a director of equity research at Deutsche Bank, said that “we believe memory market conditions remain strong, with demand far outpacing supply”.
“As illustrated in our recently published DRAM [dynamic random-access memory] demand-supply model, we expect DRAM market tightness to persist through 2027 due to the structurally higher silicon intensity of HBM [high-bandwidth memory],” she said.
“This supply-related tightness should yield healthy ASP [average selling price] growth across MU’s DRAM business and drive the company’s revenues and margins higher,” Weathers added.
Insurer Prudential was one of the best performers on the FTSE 100 (^FTSE) in 2025, in terms of total return. While the stock has eased back over the past month, Prudential shares are still up nearly 46% over one year.
AJ Bell’s Mould, Hewson and Coatsworth said that 2025 was a “banner year for the share price, recovering from a heavy sell-off across the previous couple of years linked to the group’s exposure to a weakening Chinese economy.”
Read more: UK economy stagnated in January
“The reorganisation of Prudential to focus on faster-growing economies in Africa and Asia was completed around the turn of the decade,” they said.
“This strategic shift was supposed to boost Prudential’s valuation as investors focused on its ability to take advantage of its positioning in less mature economies where a much smaller percentage of the population is insured.”
“However, it hasn’t played out that way despite last year’s recovery,” they added. “Investors will be watching the latest results to see if the growth is there and whether management expect any impact from recently heightened geopolitical tensions.”
Data from Stockopedia showed forecasts for full-year revenue of $10.4bn, EPS of $1.04 and a dividend per share of $0.258.
Tim Martin, chairman of JD Wetherspoon, said in a January trading update that the company expected profits in the first half to be lower than the comparable period for the previous year.
“If the current sales momentum continues, the company currently anticipates a full year trading outcome slightly below that achieved in FY25,” he added.
That’s despite continued growth in like-for-like sales, which increased 4.7% year-on-year over the 25 weeks to 18 January. Like-for-like sales over the main three-week Christmas period grew by 8.8%.
Read more: Bank of America analysts are most bullish on these 10 European stocks versus consensus
JD Wetherspoon shares have had a bumpy start to the year and are trading nearly 11% in the red at the time of writing.
Hargreaves Lansdown’s Nathan said: “J D Wetherspoon started the year with encouraging like-for-like sales growth, which picked up pace towards the end of the first half.
“However, with costs higher than anticipated, management now expects profit to come in below the levels seen at the same point last year, with consensus forecasts looking for an 8% decline in operating profit to £60m (79.7m).”
Monday 16 March
Standard Life (SDLF.L)
Dollar Tree (DLTR)
Tuesday 17 March
Travis Perkins (TPK.L)
Trustpilot (TRST.L)
Close Brothers (CBG.L)
Lululemon Athletica (LULU)
Wednesday 18 March
Softcat (SCT.L)
Moonpig (MOON.L)
Accenture (ACN)
FedEx (FDX)
Darden Restaurants (DRI)
Thursday 19 March
Energean (ENOG.L)
Central Asia Metals (CAML.L)
Carnival (CCL)
Friday 20 March
Smiths Group (SMIN.L)
You can read Yahoo Finance’s full calendar here.
Read more:
Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android.
