Marks profits are expected to slump
Marks & Spencer is expected to reveal a 40% slump in full-year profits as it counts the cost of the recession.
Analysts predict the high street giant will post an annual profit of £608 million, leaving only a faded memory of the previous year's triumphant rise to £1 billion for the first time in a decade.
The retailer is also forecast to cut its dividend payment to investors for the first time since 2000, potentially enraging an army of small shareholders.
M&S has seen its food business battered as shoppers slashed spending and traded down to cheaper rivals, while the general consumer downturn has also taken its toll.
The firm added to the gloom by announcing 1,200 job cuts under plans to shut 25 Simply Food outlets and two main stores in January.
But M&S chief Sir Stuart Rose gave some signs of hope in March's update with a smaller than expected fall in sales, although current trading is still expected to be depressed.
Price cuts in the food arm - including its dine in for £10 promotion - and a better performance from general merchandising helped stem the sales decline to 4.2% in its fourth quarter when analysts had been braced for a like-for-like sales plunge of as much as 7%.
Matthew McEachran, of Singer Capital Markets, said his forecast was for the dividend to be slashed to a 7.5p final payment, from the 14.2p the firm would have to pay to maintain the full year total of 22.5p.
"M&S, more than any other company in the retail sector and therefore probably more than any company in the market, has a lot of private investors," he said, adding a cut would "go down very badly" with shareholders.
"And that is what management are desperate to avoid," he said.
