There are quite a few releases today to keep market participants excited.
First off, Australia published the Westpac consumer confidence index for October, which came in at 104.6. This is slightly worse than the previous month, but not too bad overall.
Then, China partially reassured investors with a better than anticipated balance of trade report for September. The world’s second-largest economy has experienced some hiccups with growth recently, so this report was welcome.
Nevertheless, China also let the markets down with a considerably lower new yuan loans amount than anticipated, which is especially troublesome in the context of the country’s development crisis.
In Europe, Germany published its final inflation rate numbers for September, which were in line with investors’ expectations.
The European Union also released a positive industrial production reading for August, which was a little unexpected, considering Germany has struggled on that front.
The United Kingdom today released a lot of GDP-related data. Its YoY GDP in August was better than expected at 6.9%, but the 3-month average report disappointed the markets. The monthly data for August also failed to meet the forecast.
In addition, the UK’s trade balance for August was also a big disappointment to investors, but industrial production for the same month was better than expected.
There are also several important reports from the United States today. The September core inflation rate was in line with the forecast at exactly 4%, but the YoY inflation for the same month was higher than expected at 5.4%. This is well above the golden standard of 2% and might contribute to pushing the Federal Reserve to change its approach to monetary policy soon.
In that line of thinking, investors will be keenly awaiting the minutes from the Fed’s September meeting later today, which may reveal a clue about any upcoming policy shifts.
