What’s Next for U.S.-China Trade?
What’s in Today’s Report:
- What’s Next for U.S.-China Trade?
- Durable Goods Report Takeaways
It’s a mixed morning in the global financial markets as equity indexes are largely directionless while safe-haven assets have a mild bid after a mostly quiet night of news.
Longer duration Treasuries are outperforming so far today which is resulting in the 10s-2s Treasury yield spread inverting to new cycle lows, below –2 basis points as of this writing.
Economically, Chinese Industrial Profits rose +2.6% in July from –2.4% in June while Q2 German GDP met estimates at +0.4% year/year, but neither release materially moved markets.
Looking into today’s session, there are no Fed speakers, but several economic reports to watch: S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller HPI (E: 2.3%), FHFA House Price Index (E: 0.3%), and Consumer Confidence (E: 130.0).
There is also a 2-Yr Treasury Note auction today (1:00 p.m. ET) and if demand is soft (so yields rise), it could further invert the yield curve and cause another wave of recession fears as we saw earlier this month.
Lastly, another round of U.S. – China trade talks were scheduled for today although there have been no updates on the topic. So any positive news regarding those talks will be well received by investors, while if they end up not actually taking place, that will weigh on stocks and other risk assets today.
