Markets today: four Fed voices and a Trump-Xi summit after a lower Wednesday

Thursday’s calendar fills back up. Four Federal Reserve officials are scheduled to speak, the weekly jobless-claims report lands at 8:30 a.m. ET, and a summit between President Trump and President Xi sits on the day. Underneath it, the overnight session kept its focus on interest rates, with the 10-year Treasury yield at 4.96% after a Wednesday that pushed stocks lower and the volatility gauge higher. Durable goods orders close the week on Friday, and job openings follow the next Tuesday.

On the calendar today

Weekly initial jobless claims are the morning’s headline print, out at 8:30 a.m. ET and forecast at 201,000 after 196,000 the week before. The current-account balance publishes alongside it, seen at minus $255 billion against minus $226.8 billion previously. New home sales follow at 10:00 a.m. ET, expected at a 0.62 million annual rate versus 0.607 million, after the prior month’s 10.5% monthly drop.

Fed voices crowd the docket. Williams is set to speak at 4:10 a.m. ET, Barkin at 8:00, Hammack at 8:50, and Paulson at 10:10, a steady run of policy commentary through the morning. A summit between President Trump and President Xi is on the calendar for the day, and world leaders remain gathered for the UN General Assembly.

Reporting today

Costco reports after Thursday’s close. It is the one large-cap name Bellwize covers on today’s earnings docket.

Backdrop

Stocks fell Wednesday. The S&P 500 dropped 0.75% to 7,706.03, the Dow lost 0.68% to 51,511.59, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.13% to 26,936.04. A handful of large-caps ran the other way: Palo Alto Networks rose 5.0% and CrowdStrike added 4.97%. The laggards were led by McDonald’s, down 4.81%, and Alphabet, off 3.80%. The Cboe Volatility Index rose 6.52% to 16.17, and the 10-year Treasury yield stood at 4.96%.

The week ahead

• 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.
• Tuesday: The JOLTS job-openings report at 10:00 a.m. ET, which last showed 7.271 million openings.

What to watch

A few threads run through the session. The Fed speakers are the first. Four officials appear while the overnight tape stays fixed on Treasury yields, with the 10-year at 4.96% and the market reading each remark for the rate path. Jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. ET are the day’s concrete labor reading, the forecast set at 201,000 after the prior week’s 196,000. New home sales at 10:00 a.m. ET add a housing data point, seen at a 0.62 million annual rate after the prior month’s 10.5% drop. And Costco’s results after the close give the session its one company report from the large-cap names covered here. The Trump-Xi summit runs above all of it.

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