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The stock market was calm to start the week, but a wave of Federal Reserve officials and some key economic data loom.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 31 points, or 0.1%. The S&P 500 was up 0.2%. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.3%.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was up to 3.766%, while the 2-year yield was down slightly at 3.608%.
Wall Street will get a look at S&P Global’s Manufacturing and Services Purchasing Managers’ Indexes for September at 9:45 a.m. ET. Market participants will want to see signs of resilience.
Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee and Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari are set to speak, so markets will get their thoughts on the Federal Open Market Committee’s half-point interest-rate cut. A gauntlet of Fed officials are set to speak in the days ahead. But the big event of the week will be the personal consumption expenditures price index on Friday.
The stock market got through “the most uncertain Fed day at least since 2015” with the best-case scenario, according to BofA Global Research Strategist Ohsung Kwon. He recommends owning rate-sensitive stocks, and is overweight financials, consumer discretionary, real estate, and utilities.
“Absent a big surprise in PCE, we see no major macro data releases this week that could spook the market,” Kwon writes. “Historically, quiet macro weeks have been the best weeks for stocks.”
This is historically the worst week of the year for stocks, but the S&P 500 is already bucking trend by posting solid gains on what’s been a downcast month in the past.
By
Paulo Trevisani, Dow Jones Newswires
Treasury yields extend last week’s gains as markets await U.S. data and investors wonder whether the Fed’s large initial interest rate cut is an assurance against recession or a sign that the economy is hitting a soft spot.
An activity index by the Chicago Fed shows the economy rebounded a little last month. Flash manufacturing PMI is due later this morning. Housing data will be released in the next couple of days, followed by weekly jobless claims, 2Q GDP estimate and PCE inflation.
The 10-year is at 3.764% and the two-year at 3.587%.
