US stock futures are only slightly down, after a tense debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, marred by constant interruptions and insults.
The first live televised debate between the two candidates – there will be two more – was dubbed “erratic“, “awful”, “bad”, “chaotic” and “messy”, by major American media outlets. This is considered by many as the worst debate in American history.
There were constant untimely interruptions and quite a few blows below the belt. Seasoned Fox News journalist Chris Wallace failed to channel the animosity between Biden and Trump. What’s the bottom line? Not much to remember that we don’t already know. Show-politics reaches new heights.
Investors have reacted negatively to the turn taken by the “debate”. Wall Street’s leading indicators turned from green to red as insults rained down. This could be because the debate reinforced uncertainty. While Joe Biden pledged to accept the result of the vote, Donald Trump ducked, once again claiming without proof that postal voting, which promises to be important because of Covid-19, would encourage unprecedented fraud and could prevent the winner from being known before months.
Yesterday, stock market indices retreated calmly, sharply contrasting with recent volatility. Stock markets attacked the last session of the month with disparate but overall negative performances.
In Europe, the controversial bill that would allow the British government to rewrite the Brexit agreement was passed by the House of Commons with a majority of 84 votes. It now has to go through the House of Lords, where Boris Johnson’s Conservative party does not have a majority. Meanwhile, the EU and the UK resumed negotiations yesterday with the aim of reaching a trade agreement by October 15.
Meanwhile, the Institute of Directors, which is the oldest organization of British business leaders, warned that Britain is facing an upsurge in bankruptcies. According to the organization, the government could extend measures to protect businesses from this.
This morning the official Chinese Manufacturing PMI was given at 51.5 points, slightly better than expected, while the Caixin PMI came out at 53 points (consensus 53.1). In Japan, industrial production in August rose by 1.7% while the consensus was 1.4%.
Many indicators today, including French inflation, the evolution of German employment and the latest UK GDP estimate for Q2, along with European inflation, the ADP employment survey, the US latest reading of Q2 GDP, the Chicago PMI index, old property figures and weekly oil inventories.
