Will Politics Add to the Volatility?
What’s in Today’s Report:
- Will Politics Add to the Volatility?
- Why Natural Gas is Surging
Futures are slightly higher as more positive U.S./China commentary was offset by Brexit upheaval.
The outlook for U.S./China trade continued to improve as it was confirmed “high level” talks are occurring. But, that positive was offset by Brexit turmoil as the British Brexit Minister resigned over the proposed deal. The Brexit upheaval isn’t a material macro headwind, but it can be filed in the “things this market didn’t need right now” category and it’ll add to volatility.
Fed Chair Powell’s comments after the close were a non-event (he acknowledged some mild softening of economic momentum but didn’t hint at any shift in the policy outlook).
Today there is a lot of important economic data to watch (in order of importance): Retail Sales (E: 0.5%), Empire State Manufacturing Index (E: 20.0), Philly Fed (E: 20.0) and Jobless Claims (E: 215K). There are also multiple Fed speakers today including Quarles (10:00 a.m. ET), Powell (11:00 a.m. ET), Bostic (1:00 p.m. ET), Kashkari (3:00 p.m. ET) but I don’t expect any of them, including Powell, to reveal anything new.
Finally, I’ll be joining Liz Claman on Countdown to the Closing Bell on Fox Business today between 3:00 – 4:00 pm ET to discuss the outlook for this market.