With the white slacks packed away for another year and getting out the leather soled shoes again, we emerge from this year’s Labor Day holiday with work to do and plenty on our collective plate. Economic data will loom large this week, culminating in the big non-farm payroll report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Friday morning.
Today’s economic data points will have to wait til after the opening bell, but the results will be telling: ISM Manufacturing data for August, along with Construction Spending for July, are expected at 10am Eastern. In the last read, Manufacturing reached 58.1% and Construction Spending fell 1.1% in June. Stable — and growing — Construction and Manufacturing industries have been a staple of this so-called “Trump economy,” so we have much interest in seeing how these figures have progressed.
We also hear from the major auto manufacturers — Ford F, General Motors GM and others — with latest tallies of light auto sales for the month of August. Roughly one and a half million new cars are expected to have been sold last month, with a 2.6% increase in daily sales over the previous month. We see a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 17 million light vehicles sold this year, up from the 16.5 million at this time in 2017. (Estimates from Wards Intelligence.)
Currently, we’re looking at major indexes in the red this morning, after a mixed day in the European markets and a slight uptick in China today. We also see Nike NKE dropping almost 3% in today’s pre-market, as the apparel giant launches the 30th anniversary of its “Just Do It” campaign with a controversial new ad featuring Colin Kaepernick. This, as the NFL kicks off a new football season this Thursday night.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Be the first to comment