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U.S. Stocks Mixed As Economic Data Offsets Worries About Messy Election Debate

By:
Vladimir Zernov
Published: Sep 30, 2020, 12:41 UTC

S&P 500 futures managed to get back to the positive territory after the release of ADP Employment Change report.

U.S. Stock Market

In this article:

First Round Of Presidential Debates Boosts Uncertainty

Investors clearly did not like what they saw in the first round of U.S. presidential debates as S&P 500 futures fell as much as 1% overnight at some point.

Currently, S&P 500 futures managed to gain ground from the recent bottom and returned back to the positive territory.

The first round of debates boosted uncertainty about the result of the election and the smoothness of the transfer of power in case Biden wins.

Traditionally, the stock market does not like uncertainty so stocks found themselves under pressure after the first round of debates was concluded.

At this point, U.S. dollar benefited from the debate and gained ground against a broad basket of currencies due to its role as a safe haven asset, putting pressure on commodities, including oil, gold and silver.

U.S. Private Businesses Hire 749,000 Workers In September

The U.S. has just released ADP Employment Change report which showed that U.S. private businesses hired 749,000 workers in September. This is a material improvement compared to the addition of 428,000 jobs in August.

Analysts forecasted ADP Employment Change of 650,000, so the report was better than expected.

The good news on the job front may provide additional support to stocks in the near term, especially if the positive trend is confirmed by Initial Jobless Claims report on Thursday and Non Farm Payrolls report on Friday.

Initial Jobless Claims are expected to decrease to 850,000 while the Non Farm Payrolls report is projected to show that the economy added 850,000 jobs in September.

Second-Quarter GDP Declines By 31.4%

In the second quarter, U.S. GDP Growth Rate was -31.4% compared to analyst consensus of -31.7%. This is the final reading of the second-quarter GDP which is better than the initial estimate of -32.9%

Today, traders will also have a chance to evaluate data on Pending Home Sales for August. Analysts expect that Pending Home Sales increased by 3.4% month-over-month after growth of 5.9% in July.

A better-than-expected Pending Home Sales report can provide additional support to the market as the housing sector continues to show strength.

For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out our economic calendar.

About the Author

Vladimir is an independent trader and analyst with over 10 years of experience in the financial markets. He is a specialist in stocks, futures, Forex, indices, and commodities areas using long-term positional trading and swing trading.

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