Thursday, October 14 is shaping up to be quite a busy day for the financial markets.
Australia was the first country to deliver important market announcements. We heard from the Reserve Bank of Australia early on. Then, there were reports regarding the country’s labor market: the unemployment rate in September dropped more than expected to 4.6%, though the employment change report narrowly missed the forecast. In addition, Australia also set its consumer inflation expectations for October at 3.6%.
China also published important data today: the inflation rate in September was lower than expected and did not meet the forecasts in both yearly and monthly terms. The PPI was the only report that was better than anticipated.
In Europe, there is a meeting of the European Council, and there will be speeches by several prominent figures from the European Central Bank, but no major announcements are expected.
In the United States, as is typical of any Thursday, today there was jobless claims data published. Both initial and continuing claims dropped more than investors had expected, which alleviated some of the stress created by last week’s disappointing NFP report.
The US also published its September PPI, which narrowly missed the forecast, coming in at 0.5%.
Later today there will be speeches by several members of the Federal Reserve.
As far as the stock market is concerned, today all major US indices are set to grow on the back of relatively well performing tech stocks. This asset class has proven particularly resilient in the context of the coronavirus pandemic.
Furthermore, the Q3 earnings season has started. Today we are going to hear from some of America’s most influential banks, including Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America.
It is also worth keeping an eye on the tech and automotive industry because more companies are reporting that the shortage in chips will continue into next year as well. This shortage has already caused massive drops in car production around the world.
