Markets today: a thin data slate before Thursday's Trump-Xi summit

Wednesday’s calendar reads light next to the week around it. The scheduled data runs to second-tier releases: September flash purchasing managers’ indexes at 9:45 a.m. ET and weekly government oil inventories at 10:30. The heavier items sit further out. A summit between President Trump and President Xi is on the calendar for Thursday, and durable goods orders land Friday morning. Through the overnight session the wires stayed fixed on that U.S.-China meeting and on Middle East diplomacy, with world leaders gathered for the UN General Assembly, rather than on anything in today’s economic docket.

On the calendar today

The morning’s economic releases are all second-order for a broad index. S&P Global’s flash PMIs for September arrive at 9:45 a.m. ET, an early read that lands ahead of the final monthly figures. The services gauge is seen at 56.0 against 56.5 in the prior reading and manufacturing at 53.6 against 53.9; the composite measure last printed 56.0. The Federal Reserve’s Barr speaks at 10:05 a.m. ET. Weekly EIA inventory data follows at 10:30 a.m. ET, where crude stocks are forecast to draw 0.7 million barrels after a 0.64 million draw the week before, with gasoline stocks reported alongside after a build of 0.79 million barrels previously. The weekly MBA mortgage index, out earlier, put the 30-year rate at 7.12% from 6.97%.

Backdrop

Stocks closed Tuesday mixed. The S&P 500 finished essentially flat at 7,764.64, and the Dow slipped 0.36% to 51,863.69, while the Nasdaq Composite bucked the two, adding 0.45% to 27,244.28. The split left the tape without a single clear direction into Wednesday’s open. The Cboe Volatility Index sat at 14.31 and the 10-year Treasury yield eased to 4.96%.

The week ahead

• Thursday: A scheduled summit between President Trump and President Xi. Costco reports earnings.
• Friday: Durable goods orders at 8:30 a.m. ET, with the headline figure forecast at −0.4% after a 1.1% gain the prior month.

What to watch

Three threads run through the session. The flash PMIs at 9:45 a.m. ET give the first read on September business activity across services and manufacturing, and they arrive before any of the month’s confirmed data. Barr’s remarks at 10:05 a.m. ET add to a steady stream of Federal Reserve commentary that markets have been parsing for signals on the rate path. And the EIA inventory report at 10:30 a.m. ET lands while energy remains one of the most heavily covered corners of the overnight tape, with the weekly crude and gasoline figures the concrete data point in a theme that has otherwise run on headlines. The run-up to Thursday’s summit sits underneath all of it.

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