North American GDP readings and Nike earnings - things that can steer investors in the right direction.

In Wednesday’s session tech stocks rallied as traders put the losses behind them, even with the worries about global growth slowing. On various occasions this week the Federal reserve has made it pretty obvious that they intend to keep interest rates higher for a longer period than initially planned, all in order to ease inflation.

Jerome Powell has informed the public about steering the economy towards a ‘soft landing’, which ultimately means easing inflation without a recession and big job losses. However, others reckon that in fact a ‘hard landing’ is more likely to occur by the end of next year.

Nevertheless, here are 3 things that may steer investors in the right direction for Thursday’s trading session:

1. GDP reading (US)

• At 13:30 (8:30 US), another reading for Q2 of GDP is due to be released. Experts are estimating that the results will show that the economy contracted 0.6% from Q1.

2. Canada’s GDP MoM

• Also, today at 13:30 (8:30 Canada), another reading for July for the Canadian GDP is to come out. With market analysts forecasting -0.1% to the previous month of 0.1%.    

3. Nike earnings

• The biggest sportswear brand Nike, which in the previous quarters has had supply chain and production issues in China, will report on their earnings. Analysts are expecting EPS of 92 cents on revenue of $12.3 billion.