With September behind them, investors are hoping to leave some of its recent woes behind them as well. The last trading days of the month were mired in banking woes stemming from overseas. With Europe once again on the brink of potential crisis, investors will be looking for any positive news this week coming from here and abroad.
And they may just get it, in terms of domestic economic data. The start of a new month and quarter means plenty of data being released. The last couple of months, the data was mixed and allowed the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates at low levels. More mixed data from measures such as manufacturing and labor health could actually push off December’s potential rate hike into 2017.
Meanwhile, with earnings season around the corner, the number of earlier reporters is growing. Any sort of bullish reports here could signal the U.S. economy is doing better than the rest of the world. And that could help stocks with their cause this week.
Monday
Mondays have typically been quite reserved in recent weeks, offering no real financial or economic data. However, the first trading Monday of October provides investors with a doozy of a data point. In the morning we’ll see the release of the ISM Purchasing Managers Index (PMI). The measure of manufacturing health actually dipped into contraction last month – a very worrisome sign indeed. Monday will also see all-day vehicle sales, month-over-month construction spending and the ISM Manufacturing Prices number. However, none of these metrics has the same pull as the PMI report.
