Corporate fraud cases, election speeches and jobs data

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Hello and welcome to the working week.

Like the buses, stories on particular beats can bunch together. This is why the next seven days will be particularly busy for our legal and UK parliamentary teams.

The main trial of Sam Bankman-Fried will (at last) get under way on Tuesday with a jury selection in Manhattan federal court. The FTX founder faces charges of stealing billions in customer funds from his now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange.

The hearing is due to run for up to six weeks — FT reporters will be there throughout. If you are a bit hazy on the last days of FTX, remind yourself with this excellent blow-by-blow account from the FT magazine.

And there is more. Also in New York, on Monday, the civil suit brought by attorney-general Letitia James against the Trump Organization begins.

A day later, down the coast in Wilmington, Delaware, US president Joe Biden’s son Hunter appears in a federal court on gun charges.

We then head across the Atlantic, where former Co-Operative Bank chair Paul Flowers is due in court in Manchester to face fraud charges. This case, one of the few examples of a senior charge against a UK-based banker, had to be postponed in August after 73-year-old Flowers suffered a stroke.

British politicians are in the thick of conference season. These events will generate the last big set-piece speeches by party leaders ahead of the next general election, almost certain to be called by prime minister Rishi Sunak in the next 12 months.

Sunak, who has lately rediscovered his inner petrolhead, addresses the Conservative party faithful in Manchester on Wednesday with his closing conference speech. Dare he mention HS2?

Opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer will be heading up for his party’s gathering in Liverpool next weekend, where the most important thing for him is to act like a PM in waiting, having already successfully wooed the business vote.

But there is more for the parliamentary team to cover, too. On Thursday, the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election will be held in the seat vacated by former Scottish National party MP Margaret Ferrier, who was suspended from the House of Commons for breaching Covid lockdown rules in 2020. Labour needs to take the seat to prove it can win big again in Scotland, vital for the party to secure an overall majority in Westminster when the national poll comes.

From the companies desk, retail will be a dominant theme again with results from vegan-pasty king Greggs and fast-fashion supplier Boohoo among others. The grocery market is highly competitive, with not just utility and wage costs but shoplifting on the rise. So all eyes will be on Tesco, the UK’s largest supermarket operator, which reports first-half figures on Wednesday. Investors will be particularly interested in its input costs and margin strategies, as well as operating profit and free cash flow.

The big economic data point comes at the end of the week with the latest US jobs report. For those of us interested in UK house prices (and what self-respecting middle-class Brit is not?) there will be updates from Nationwide and Halifax.

Thank you for your comments and suggestions about this newsletter. Email me at [email protected], or if you have received this in your inbox just hit reply.

One more thing . . . 

This week sees the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war. Like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, this was a conflict significant not least because of the fuel crisis it spawned. If you need a refresher, read this FT review of a new account of the battle, Eighteen Days in October.

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

• Trial begins in civil suit brought by New York attorney-general Letitia James against the Trump Organization

• China: National Day of Golden Week continues. Financial markets closed

• Canada, EU, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, US: S&P Global/Cips manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) data

• India: Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday. Financial markets closed

• Japan: minutes published of Bank of Japan’s last rate-setting meeting

• UK: Nationwide October and Q3 regional House Price Index

• Results: James Halstead FY

Tuesday

• Trial begins of Sam Bankman-Fried on charges of stealing billions in customer funds from his now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange

• Germany: German Unity Day. Financial markets closed

• South Korea: National Foundation Day. Financial markets closed

• UK: British Retail Consortium’s Shop Price Index

• Results: Boohoo H1, Fast Retailing September sales update, Greggs Q3 trading update, McCormick & Company Q3

Wednesday

• Former Co-operative Bank chair Paul Flowers is due to appear in court charged with fraud by abuse of position between June 2016 and October 2017

• Canada, EU, France, Germany, Japan, UK, US: S&P Global/Cips services PMI data

• Results: Accolade Q2, Tesco H1, Topps Tiles FY

Thursday

• France: industrial production data

• Germany: trade balance figures

• UK: S&P Global/Cips construction PMI data

• Results: Conagra Brands Q1, Constellation Brands Q2, Ferrexpo Q3, Imperial Brands trading update, Lamb Weston Q1, Levi Strauss & Co Q3

Friday

• France: trade balance figures

• Germany: factory orders data

• UK: Halifax House Price Index

• US: October employment report

• Results: JD Wetherspoon FY

World events

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

Monday

• Fifth anniversary of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s assassination inside his country’s consulate in Istanbul. Khashoggi had been a vocal critic of the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen

• UK: ScotRail begins a six-month trial, funded by the Scottish government, offering only off-peak fares all day long to make public transport more affordable and encourage train journeys over driving cars

Tuesday

• 30th anniversary of the death of 18 US soldiers and a UN Malaysian soldier in Somalia when two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down during an American-led operation to capture warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid in Mogadishu.

• Sweden: winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics announced, the first of several scientific awards in this annual series to be unveiled in Stockholm this week.

• US: arraignment hearing in court for president Joe Biden’s son Hunter, who is expected to plead not guilty to three criminal counts of possessing a gun while he was an illegal drug user and lying to buy it

Wednesday

Thursday

• Spain: European Political Community summit in Granada

• UK: Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election in the seat vacated by former Scottish National party MP Margaret Ferrier

Friday

• Denmark: Nato Parliamentary Assembly annual session opens in Copenhagen

• Israel: 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Yom Kippur war

• Norway: Nobel Peace Prize winner announced in Oslo

Saturday

Sunday

• Germany: regional elections in Bavaria, the country’s largest state by land area

• Luxembourg: parliamentary elections

• UK: Labour party’s annual conference begins in Liverpool