Markets today: light data before Apple's event and Friday's CPI

Wall Street opens Wednesday to a thin economic calendar, and the week’s decisive reports sit further out. Apple holds a product-launch event today, the loudest single item on the tape this morning and one that tends to draw the whole market’s attention for a day. The releases that carry the most weight for the Federal Reserve arrive Thursday and Friday, when producer and consumer inflation print back to back. Both feed straight into the inflation picture the central bank is weighing. Today is a waiting day.

On the calendar today

Today’s scheduled data is light and second-tier. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s 30-year mortgage rate came in at 6.85% at 7:00 a.m. ET, up from 6.79% a week earlier. The weekly ADP employment gauge follows at 8:15 a.m. ET, after a prior reading of 11.75 thousand. The API’s crude oil stock change is due at 4:30 p.m. ET, following a draw of 2.6 million barrels the prior week. None of the three carries the market weight of the inflation figures waiting later in the week.

Backdrop

Stocks slipped Tuesday. The S&P 500 closed at 7,673.52, down 0.58%, while the Dow fell 1.18% to 52,786.07 and the Nasdaq eased 0.32% to 26,421.41. Chip names led the gainers, with Intel up 9.1% and Advanced Micro Devices up 5.9%; Amgen was the day’s steepest decliner, off 10.1%. The Cboe Volatility Index rose 4.5% to 16.43, and the 10-year Treasury yield stood at 4.78%.

The week ahead

The schedule builds from here.

• Thursday, September 10: producer prices (PPI) at 8:30 a.m. ET, with a 0.4% monthly forecast against a flat prior reading, and existing home sales at 10:00 a.m. ET, forecast at 3.98 million versus 4.06 million previously. Oracle and Adobe report.
• Friday, September 11: the consumer price index at 8:30 a.m. ET, with headline inflation forecast at 0.4% on the month and 3.4% on the year, and core prices at 0.2% monthly and 2.4% annual. The University of Michigan’s preliminary consumer sentiment reading follows at 10:00 a.m. ET, forecast at 51 against 51.7.

What to watch

Apple’s event is the corporate focus. Product news from the company can ripple across the chip and hardware suppliers held widely across the market, so trading in that group may draw attention through the session. The ADP weekly figure at 8:15 a.m. ET offers an early labor read before the inflation reports later in the week. It is a weekly series and a noisy one, so a single print rarely resets the hiring picture on its own. Rate-sensitive corners of the market, from housing to the banks, tend to move on the inflation prints once they land. Oil is the other thread, with the API inventory data landing after the close.

This is a general-market summary for information only — not investment advice, and not a recommendation regarding any security.