Morning Reads
- EU Chief Urges Funds
- Oil Holds Surge as OPEC+
- World’s Largest Oilfield Contractor
- U.S. Electric-Vehicle Tax Rules Rile Asian, European Allies
- Lebanese Lawmaker Enters Bank Branch
- As Asia’s Borrowers Turn Homeward
- The First Global Deflation Has Begun
- Fed Official Says Inflation Fight Will Take Time
- US Stocks Have Just Started Pricing In Recession, Citi Quants Say
- U.S. National Debt Tops $31 Trillion for First Time
- Endowment Tax on Wealthiest
- Musk’s Everything App ‘X’ Sounds a Lot Like China’s WeChat
- Facebook Is the Only Game in Town for Digital Political Ads
- Amazon Freezes Corporate Hiring in Its Retail Business
- N.L.R.B. Issues Complaint Against Apple
- Who’s Operating Your Flight?
- Bayer Hits Courtroom Winning Streak
- 433 People Won a $4 Million Lottery. Was It Pure Luck?
Options
Futures
PREMIUM
PREPPER
- S&P 500 futures are 0.9% below fair value; the Nasdaq 100 futures are 0.9% below fair value; and the DJIA futures are 0.8% below fair value
- Key factors driving the futures market:
- Contention that the two-day rally to start October has gotten overdone
- Challenges to the speculation about a Fed pivot happening soon
- A bump in Treasury yields
- Worries about geopolitical tension rising in the event OPEC+ agrees to a large production cut today
- UK Prime Minister Truss defends plan to cut taxes, saying her three priorities for the economy are "growth, growth and growth," according to CNBC
- The Reserve Bank of New Zealand raised its policy rate by 50 basis points, as expected, to 3.50%, but had considered a 75 basis points increase at recent meeting
- Weekly mortgage applications decline 14.2%, paced by 18% drop in refinancing applications and 13% decline in purchase applications (higher rates and Hurricane Ian drove the weakness)
- OPEC+ meeting today, with reports suggesting there could be an agreement to cut production anywhere from 500K bpd to 2 mln bpd
- Hong Kong's Hang Seng (closed yesterday for a holiday) surges 5.9% in Wednesday's trading
- September ADP Employment Change Report estimates 208,000 jobs added to private-sector payrolls (Briefing.com consensus 220,000); prior revised up to 185,000 from 132,000
- Brokerage research calls of note:
- Upgrades: AVTR, F, SIMO, CHD
- Downgrades: LPI, MS, SHC, SIVB, GS, JHG, LUMN, PEN, POSH
- WTI crude futures +0.1% to $86.61/bbl; nat gas futures -2.5% to $6.67/mmbtu; copper futures -0.8% to $3.46/lb
- 2-yr note yield +4 bps to 4.12% and 10-yr note yield +7 bps to 3.69%
- Today's economic data: August Trade Balance at 8:30 a.m. ET; September Final IHS Markit Services PMI at 9:45 a.m. ET; September ISM Non-Manufacturing Index at 10:00 a.m. ET