Wednesday preview: UK inflation reading, Tesla and Boeing results due

(Sharecast News) - Wednesday sees the release of the March UK inflation reading, while trading updates from the likes of Aberdeen and Quilter will be in focus, along with quarterly earnings from Tesla and Boeing across the pond. Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, said the UK inflation reading will give an early sign of how the energy price spike impacted the inflation outlook.

"Analysts expect headline CPI to rise to 3.3% from 3% in February, and core prices are expected to remain stable at 3.2%," she said. "Rising petrol and diesel costs are likely to be the biggest driver of the increase in the CPI reading last month. Surging oil and gas prices have been felt by those not on the energy prices cap, which could also add upward pressure to the inflation reading.

"Producer prices are also reported on Wednesday, and they should tell us how quickly businesses are passing on rising costs to consumers. We think that output prices could rise sharply as businesses cannot absorb more cost pressures in the current environment."

In terms of earnings, quarterly numbers are due in the US from Boeing and Tesla. Brooks noted that last quarter, Tesla's earnings topped estimates, but overall 2025 was disappointing for Tesla and annual revenue fell for the first time.

"Analysts expect the company to bounce back in 2026, and YoY earnings growth is expected to come in at 40% for Q1," she said.

Brooks said the key for investors is capex spend. "Tesla has spent huge amounts of money on building out its AI capabilities, and its latest guide for capex this year was $20bn. However, some analysts are concerned that this is too low and does not include the potential spend for Musk's latest projects including Terafab and Solar fab, both are likely to come with hefty price tags."

She pointed out that Tesla shares have fallen after two of the last three reports, and said the company does not have a great near-term track record of boosting investor demand for the stock after announcing earnings and future forecasts.

"A liberal increase in capex plans for this year could knock investor sentiment once again," she said.

In the UK, trading updates are due from Aberdeen, Bunzl, Reckitt Benckiser, Quilter and GB Group, while Fresnillo and Hochschild Mining will release production updates.

As far as Quilter is concerned, UBS expects the company to report Q1 gross flows of around £5.2bn and net flows of £2.3bn, which are circa 6% and 5% ahead of Q1 2025 respectively, with net flows annualising at 6.5% of opening assets under management and administration.

"This coupled with weaker market returns leads us to expect AUMA of £138bn, circa 1% behind that of FY25," the bank said.