It is a new week in the financial markets, and one that starts with a bit of a mixed bag of economic reports.
The most important publication of the day will be the durable goods orders for August from the United States, which are expected to have increased to 0.7%.
The remaining fundamental events are mostly speeches by the heads and representatives of several central banks around the world. Today we are going to hear from the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, and the Federal Reserve.
Meanwhile, investors continue to closely follow the situation with the real estate market in China. The People’s Bank of China announced another injection of $15 billion to keep the financial markets calm. Evergrande Group is facing a second week of defaults, but announced it will raise funds by selling shares in its electric vehicle branch, which helped its share value increase.
Still, the markets remain a bit apprehensive regarding China’s development sector and other companies in the same industry are also experiencing some difficulties.
In Europe, the news outlets are mostly digesting the results of Germany’s parliamentary elections. They went just as the polls had predicted, with the SPD, CDU/CSU, Greens, and FDP gathering the most votes (in this order). This turn of events reveals that things will either stay the same in Germany, or change very little if the slightly more leftist SPD is part of the ruling coalition.
Politics are also taking center stage in the United States. Democrats remain divided over two separate spending bills, one worth $1.2 trillion and one worth $3.5 trillion. The more progressive members of the Democratic Party want both bills to be looked at together, while others want to focus on passing the $1.2 trillion bill first, because it is more likely to succeed in the Senate.
There are also concerns over government funding, which is running out this week. Law-makers need to agree on a new budget soon before the US has to experience another government shutdown.
