Three Major September Catalysts
What’s in Today’s Report:
- Three Key September Events/Dates (Print this List)
Stock futures are solidly higher this morning after Hong Kong’s Carrie Lam announced the withdraw of the extradition bill that was the major catalyst for the recent protests. The news sparked a near 4% rally in the Hang Seng Index.
Composite PMI data for August was also better than expected with the Chinese figure rising to 51.6 from 50.9 while the EU headline firmed to 53.5 from 53.2 in July helping ease concerns about the health of the global economy.
Looking into today’ session, there are two economic data points to watch: Motor Vehicle Sales (E: 16.8M) and International Trade (E: -$53.5B) however investors will be primarily focused on the very busy schedule of Fed speakers: Williams (9:30 a.m. ET), Kaplan (10:00 a.m. ET), Bowman and Bullard (12:30 p.m. ET), Kashkari (1:00 p.m. ET), and Evans (3:15 p.m. ET).
Investors will be looking for any further insight into how accommodative the Fed will be in the coming months, specifically how likely a 50 bp cut at this month’s meeting is (current expectations are low, so a dovish surprise would be well received by stocks).
Beyond the Fed speak, the trade war is still the major influence on the broader markets right now and investors continue to wait for updates on the next round of trade talks that are supposed to take place in the coming days.