Speculation that interest rates could be cut as soon as August has caused the retail sector to rally recently.
Against that cheery backdrop carpet retailer Carpetright, HMV and Dobbies Garden Centres all announce results tomorrow.
According to Stephen Jones, divisional director of Brewin Dolphin Securities in Birmingham, the wild card at Carpetright is a rumour that Lord Harris of Peckham might consider taking his business private.
Investors in the company will have shivered when Birmingham- based rival Floors 2 Go, which specialises in laminates and wood flooring, said on Friday that its like-for-like sales were down 20 per cent in the second quarter.
The spending slowdown and an end to the housing boom were to blame and the same factors were behind the 5.9 per cent fall in like-for-like sales at Carpetright in the 25 weeks to April 2.
With survey evidence and the views of many analysts holding that April and May have been extremely tough for retailers, the full year results to April 30 will be scrutinised for its outlook and any update on current trading.
The consensus among analysts is that Carpetright will report pretax profits of £61.6 million, well down on the £67.1 million reported a year earlier.
That equates to 2005 earnings per share of 64.2p which just about justifies a small increase in the dividend from 44p to 46.1p, a yield of 4.8 per cent.
Current trading will be key when HMV unveils its annual results, and investors worried that the music and books retailer is being badly hit by the consumer spending slowdown should take heart from the recent releases of albums by Coldplay and Oasis and the imminent arrival of the new Harry Potter novel in stores.
HMV revealed last month that like-for-like sales fell by 2.2 per cent during the 14 weeks to April 30, although the picture was brighter for total sales which rose 1.2 per cent at constant exchange rates.
Simon Proctor, an analyst at Charles Stanley, said only optimists would be expecting a significant upturn in trading since the start of May although the release schedule for books and music will have helped.
He is forecasting pretax profits of £131.5 million for the year to April 30, up from £117.6 million.
Wet weather during the first half of the year is likely to cast a small cloud over the interim results of Dobbies Garden Centres.
The group, which has about 17 centres in England and Scotland, including the UK's largest at Atherstone, is expected to report a slight fall in like-for-like sales during the period.
However, broker Seymour Pierce is certainly forgiving about that.
He says the business is an "excellent operation".
Although unable to provide an interim profit forecast, Seymour's latest prediction for full year pretax profits is about £5.35 million against £4.7 million last time.
"Dobbies' standards of visual merchandising, shop fittings and their nonhorticultural product offering is excellent," said retail analyst Richard Ratner.
