Retail sales and import data have hit the Street already
U.S. stock index futures are trading modestly above fair value ahead of a busy day on Wall Street. Already today, traders were hit with weak retail sales -- which grew at their slowest pace in six months in August -- while import prices fell 0.6% last month, their biggest drop since January 2016. There's plenty more on tap, too, with a Fed speech currently underway and several economic reports still slated for release. At last check, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) and S&P 500 Index (SPX) are up, with the latter coming off its fourth straight win and closing last night fewer than 13 points from its Aug. 29 record intraday high.
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Business inventories, the preliminary University of Michigan consumer sentiment index, and the Baker-Hughes rig count will be released today. Additionally, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans will speak ahead of next week's onslaught of economic reports.
It was mostly a positive day for Asian equities, as traders showed confidence in the U.S.-China trade outlook and tech stocks gained. The one negative outlier, however, was China's Shanghai Composite, which finished down 0.2%, despite flirting with positive territory earlier in the session. Chinese investors considered a round of economic data that included disappointing fixed asset investment numbers for the first half of the year. Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Hang Seng popped 1% and Japan's Nikkei ended up 1.2%, thanks mostly to a strong session for chip stocks. South Korea's Kospi also closed with a nice gain, up 1.4%.
Over in Europe, stocks are cautiously higher halfway through the day, mostly due topositive global trade developments.As such, the French CAC 40 and German DAX are sporting 0.2% gains, and London's FTSE 100 is up 0.3% at last check.