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The stock market gets off to a quiet start this week, but Wednesday and Thursday will both be busy for companies reporting.

Thursday will see a full-year trading update from Aberdeen-based consulting and engineering group Wood.

Analysts will also be keen to hear the company's views on the year ahead.

In particular, they will be interested to know if Wood is feeling any adverse impact from the windfall taxes being imposed on oil and gas producers in the UK and Europe.

In a trading update at the end of November, the company said trading in the first 10 months of the year was in line with expectations.

It expected full-year revenue to be between $5.2billion (£4.3billion) and $5.5billion (£4.55billion), and adjusted EBITDA to be broadly around the middle of its guidance range of $370million (£305million) and $400million (£330million).

Retailers updates

Meanwhile, the rush of retailers updating on their festive performances continues this week.

They include Tesco, Marks & Spencer, JD Sports, Sainsbury's and ASOS.

Tesco will be providing a Q3 update on Thursday.

Sophie Lund-Yates, an equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: Christmas is a crucial time for supermarkets. It's traditionally a time of bumper sales and profit-making as customers splurge on extra-special food and gifts.

She added: "We will find out this week if this was the case for Tesco.

"The challenge this year of course is the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, which has been pushing customers towards the discounters.

Profit expectations

"Specifically, we'd like to know if Tesco was forced to offer steeper discounts than expected to entice and retain customers. If that's the case, it's likely profit expectations could be tempered for the full year. This is an existing challenge for Tesco.

"We heard at the half year that, despite higher sales, underlying operating profits fell 9.8% to £1.3billion, as inflation pushed costs higher and consumers shifted to own-brand items.

"To Tesco's credit, its huge scale and hard work on positioning itself as a better-value offering should stop any dramatic shifts."

She added that the retail giant's Christmas numbers will be taken as a bellwether for the wider industry.

FTSE 100

The UK's top share index, the FTSE 100, was up 11-points at 7710 shortly after opening this morning, following Friday's 66-point gain.

There are no FTSE 350 companies reporting today.

Brent crude futures were 1.79% higher at $79.98 a barrel.

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