Currently, Mario Draghi is holding his very last ECB conference as President of the central bank. As with all ECB policy meeting, a rate decision is expected, though investors are not hoping for any changes. Draghi will likely leave any future policy-making to Christine Lagarde, who is taking over his post next month.
Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, Brexit discussions continue in full. The European Union is largely expected to grant a three-month “flextension” to the UK, which would prevent a hard Brexit on October 31. In the meantime, it appears that Parliament is unsure whether next week MPs will continue discussing Johnson’s withdrawal agreement bill or if the PM will try to force snap elections instead.
In other news, global economic growth continues to decrease. PMI data released from Japan, Australia, and France today failed to meet investors’ forecasts; Germany’s was slightly better than expected, though still unconvincing. Later today, we also expect a PMI report from the United States.
Today there will also be a speech by US Vice President Mike Pence. Trump’s second-in-command will most likely discuss foreign policy, with a focus on China. In his previous address, Pence was quite critical of China and, as a result, his speech did not help smooth things over between the two countries currently engaged in a bitter trade spat. With negotiations underway, everyone expects that this time around Pence will be a bit more diplomatically-minded. The “phase-one” agreement between the US and China has still not been signed.
