0652 GMT - Pernod Ricard's more downbeat outlook for the coming years' sales offers some ballast to peer Diageo's own guidance, RBC Capital Markets' James Edwardes Jones writes in a note to investors. The French distiller behind Absolut vodka and Jameson whiskey said it expects annual sales growth to be at the low end of a previously guided 3%-6% range through fiscal 2029, a result of softness in the key U.S. market. "We think this gives some validation to Diageo's recently communicated plan, in particular the prudence of its sales growth expectations," Edwardes Jones says.