Week ahead: Broadcom results due in holiday-shortened week

(Sharecast News) - Markets in the UK will be closed for the Bank Holiday next Monday and corporate news is expected to remain pretty thin all week as the summer holidays draw to a close.

Tuesday will bring first-half results from Ashtead Technology, while in the US, quarterly results from Dell Technologies, Medtronic and Palo Alto will be eyed. On the macro front, UK consumer credit, mortgage approvals and net lending figures for July will be among the highlights, along with the latest UK manufacturing PMI and preliminary eurozone inflation figures for August.

On Wednesday, Cairn Homes is scheduled to release interim results, while Broadcom will report in the US.

AJ Bell analysts Russ Mould and Dan Coatsworth said: "A shift from general-purpose AI chips to custom-made options has played to the advantage of Broadcom. The company works directly with hyperscalers to design their own artificial intelligence infrastructure.

"This helped Broadcom outperform rival Nvidia at the back end of 2025 and into 2026, but its shares have lost some of their fizz more recently, not helped by a lack of upgrades when the company updated on its second-quarter earnings in June.

"Broadcom derives meaningful recurring revenue from its software business which was augmented by the acquisition of VMware for $69 billion in November 2023. As hardware takes a bigger share of its overall business, there is some risk of pressure on margins given it tends to be somewhat less profitable. Profitability will therefore be under the spotlight in the latest earnings report.

"Broadcom will likely need to hit its guided $16 billion in third-quarter AI revenue as an absolute bare minimum if it is to keep investors on side. It may also need to offer an advance on its current full-year target of $56 billion, particularly if it is to build confidence in its ability to hit a projection of $100 billion in AI chip revenue by the 2027 financial year."

Investors will also turn their attention to the latest policy announcements from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and Bank of Canada.

On Thursday, first-half results from Grafton will be out, while across the pond, quarterly results from Lululemon Athletica, Planet Labs, Campbell's and Victoria's Secret are due. Also of note will be the release of the latest US initial jobless claims figures.

On Friday, the non-farm payrolls report for August will be the highlight on the macro front, along with the unemployment rate and average earnings. Danske Bank said it expects non-farm payrolls to rise by 65,000, slightly above the 55,000 consensus, while unemployment remains at 4.1%, indicating a still-tight labour market.

Average hourly earnings are expected to increase by 0.3% month-on-month, it said, adding that "a strong report could add pressure on the Fed to raise rates".

In the UK, the S&P Global construction PMI for August will be released, while eurozone retail sales data for July will also be out.