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As I shape my investing strategy for 2025, I’m looking out for the earliest news from our top FTSE 100 companies. Knowing how they ended 2024 and hearing their take on the approaching 12 months can give us a feel for how the year might go.
Supermarket leader
Tesco (LSE: TSCO) has a Christmas trading update lined up for 9 January. In the first half, reported in October, Tesco posted a 3.5% rise in group sales. Adjusted operating profit rose 15.6%. I didn’t like a couple of things though, and that’ll sharpen my scrutiny when we get this next update.
Retail cash flow dropped by 7.8%. It’s still decent, and the company put it partly down to higher tax. But I think we’re at a key point where I want to see cash flow strengthening.
Debt blipped up a bit too, though only 2.1%. Falling would be nice.
The board’s full year guidance spoke of “retail free cash flow within our medium-term guidance range of £1.4bn to £1.8bn“. So a quarter further on, that’ll be where my eyes go first.
Building back
Taylor Wimpey (LSE: TW.) brings us a trading update on 16 January. It comes ahead of FY results due at the end of February.
The housebuilding business can be another bellweather for stock market sentiment. And sentiment looks mixed right now, as the Taylor Wimpey share price has fallen in the past couple of months.
That ties in with the growing likelihood that Bank of England interest rates will stay higher for longer. And it clouds a 9 November update which spoke of “improvement in customer demand as mortgage rates reduced“.
So what I’m looking for is an update on how demand has been going in the final two months of the year.
The firm did say it’s “on track to deliver UK volumes in line with previous guidance and group operating profit in line with current market expectations“. We’ll see.
Up in the air
The easyJet (LSE: EZJ) share price has been gaining ground since the summer, ahead of Q1 results due on 22 January.
And with a forecast price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of only eight, I wonder if it might be one of the last to respond to any market bullishness.
Forecasts show earnings growth. It’s only modest, but it could see the P/E decline a bit more if the price doesn’t pick up. Airlines can be volatile at the best of times though, so a lower P/E doesn’t surprise me too much.
The year ended 30 September looked good enough. But it was the 2025 outlook that caught my eye. The board’s looking for a 3% rise in capacity to around 103 million seats. That could be the metric to watch.
Stocks to watch?
I’m not sure if I’ll buy any of these three in 2025, though Taylor Wimpey’s probably the most likely.
But I rate all three as key ones to watch for investors interested in their sectors, or the stock market in general. I reckon each could reflect market sentiment over different timescales.
