The First Two Important Events of the Year (Both This Week)
What’s in Today’s Report:
- The First Two Important Events of 2020 (Both This Week)
- Weekly Market Preview
- Weekly Economic Cheat Sheet (Important Updates on Growth)
Futures are moderately higher following a quiet weekend and ahead of two important events this week: Phase one signing ceremony (Wed) and the start of earnings season. Futures are essentially recouping Friday’s losses.
U.S./China trade optimism is helping stocks rally as the U.S. and China will resume semi-annual meetings, something that was done in the Bush/Obama administrations. This doesn’t impact trade directly, but just like in 2019, any generically positive U.S./China headline will result in at least a mild rally.
Economic data was soft as British GDP (-0.3% vs. (E) 0.0%) and manufacturing (-1.7% vs. (E) -0.3%) both missed estimates, although the soft data is only weighing on the Pound.
Today there are no notable economic reports and just two Fed speakers, Rosengren (10:00 a.m. ET) and Bostic (12:40 a.m. ET), and they won’t move markets. So, investors will be looking for any hints as to what will be released at the U.S./China phase one signing ceremony on Wednesday, and the more specifics, the better.