September finally comes to a close, some may be happy that it's over, some may want one last peek at what is ahead today.
Markets retreated from their gains and ended Thursday’s trading session negatively as the month draws to a close today. Throughout the entire month, the markets have fought all the worries regarding aggressive actions by the Fed to tame inflation. Perhaps, investors are glad that September is finally over.
Tech stocks are receiving a beating due to rising Treasuries as investors flee risker assets. Rising rates are taking the steam of the housing market by pushing borrowing costs close to 7%, twice what they were at the start of the year (investing.com). The strengthening dollar is causing havoc in foreign currencies, although good for our fellow Americans, but not so good for businesses exporting their products abroad.
The next Fed meeting is due in November and analysts are predicting an additional 75bp rate increase (investing.com), making it four in a row! As a result, investors worry that this could push the economy into a recession, especially after the feared GDP results released yesterday.
Key proceedings that may impact the markets today:
- Income & Spending
- Personal spending and personal income data are due to be out released at 13:30 (09:30 US). The month-to-month expectation for August is 0.2% for spending and 0.3% for income (investing.com). Both would be up a mark compared to previous month.
- Personal consumption expenditures
- The Federal Reserve’s most favourable inflation measure, the PCE, is also due to be released today for August. Experts are estimating the core PCE price index to rise 0.5% compared with 0.1% to the prior month. The YoY estimate is a gain of 4.7% compared with 4.6% to the prior month (investing.com). Data is due to be released at 13:30 (09:30 US).
- European CPI number (YoY)
- The European Union is set to impose additional sanctions on Russia after Putin has announced to host Kremlin ceremony, EU energy ministers are to meet later today to discuss their options (investing.com). But most importantly the Eurozone Consumer Price Index number for September, which could rise close to 10% on annual basis (investing.com), is due to be released at 10:00 (05:00 US).
