The major business events happening this week

Walt Disney, Tesla Motors and Hasbro due to report results this week

Monday

Results: Hasbro; Jones Lang LaSalle; Randgold Resources.

Indicators: Euro zone retail PMI (Jan); German factory orders (Dec).

Tuesday

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Results: Aramark; BNP Paribas; BP; Universal; Walt Disney.

Meetings: ISME 'Elevate' Business Briefing (Alexander Hotel, Dublin 2).

Indicators: German Industrial Production (Dec); US balance of trade (Dec); UK Halifax House Price Index (Jan).

Other: UDG Healthcare trading update; Bellway trading update.

Wednesday

Results: Allergan; HTC; Redrow; Rio Tinto; Smurfit Kappa; Syngenta; Tesla Motors; Time Warner; Tullow Oil; Zendesk.

Indicators: MBA Mortgage Applications (03 Feb).

Other: Hibernia REIT trading update.

Smurfit Kappa to report fourth-quarter and full-year results

Paper-based packaging company Smurfit Kappa is due to report fourth-quarter and full-year results to end-December this Wednesday.

Davy Stockbrokers is forecasting the company to report group earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) of €312 million for the fourth quarter, 4 per cent below the same period last year, and €1.2 billion for the full-year 2016.

Davy analyst Barry Dixon said he expects EBITDA of €237 million for European operations in the fourth quarter, driven by corrugated volume growth, a positive contribution from the Townsend Hook mill in the UK and the benefits of cost-saving programmes. This would be marginally below the €238 million reported in Q4 2015.

For the Americas division, Davy is forecasting EBITDA of €84 million, down from the €89 million reported in the final quarter of 2015. The main driver of the decline is a negative foreign exchange impact, primarily from the weakness in the Mexican peso.

Last month, Smurfit announced plans to increase the price of a recycled containerboard, used to make cardboard boxes.

The company said a €60 a tonne increase in recycled containerboard prices would become effective from this month across all its main continental European markets.

Thursday

Results: Coca-Cola; Commerzbank; Expedia; L'Oreal; News Corp; Publicis Groupe; Zynga.

Meetings: 3XE Digital Conference (Croke Park, Dublin 3).

Indicators: Irish inflation rate (Jan); German balance of trade (Dec); US initial jobless claims (04 Feb).

Other: Tate & Lyle trading statement.

3XE digital marketing conference for Croke Park

Digital marketing professionals and business owners are expected to converge on Croke Park this Thursday for the 3XE digital marketing conference.

Vodafone head of digital Paul Carton, Wolfgang Digital chief executive Alan Coleman, Funnybizz founder David Nihill, PayPal vice-president Louise Phelan, Zazzle Media managing director Simon Penson and Cloud90 chief executive Nicola Byrne are among the speakers at the event.

The conference will feature a number of workshops on topics including dynamic search advertising, customer journey mapping, optimising landing pages, search engine optimisation and social media tactics that get the right attention.

3XE digital conference director Adrian Hopkins said the conference is aimed at marketers and business owners who want to reach customers through the social web as social media and search marketing continues to expand at a phenomenal rate.

Three 3XE digital conferences took place last year, the last event took place in October where RTÉ head of digital and innovation Aidan McCullen, In The Company Of Huskies digital strategist Aleesha Tully and ICAN head of SEO Gavin Duff were among the speakers.

The first year of 3XE digital events was held in 2015, and featured speakers from Microsoft, Twitter, Google and Facebook.

Friday

Results: Aon; ArcelorMittal; CBRE Group; DSV; Renault.

Indicators: Irish Residential Property Prices (Dec); Chinese balance of trade (Jan); UK balance of trade (Dec); UK Industrial Production (Dec); US Monthly Budget Statement (Jan).