What are the main events for today?

The European session is pretty empty on the data front with just the
German IFO as the main highlight. The IFO index is similar to the German
Composite PMI as they are correlated, so it shouldn’t be a big deal.

In the American session, the focus will be on the US Consumer Confidence report as we are now gathering the September labour market details from various economic indicators to gauge the likely outcome of the upcoming NFP report. The Initial Claims last week were the first of such data with a surprsingly strong reading.

14:00 GMT/10:00 ET – US September Consumer Confidence

The US Consumer
Confidence is expected at 103.8 vs. 103.3 prior. The last report surprised to the upside. Dana M. Peterson, Chief
Economist at The Conference Board said: “Overall consumer confidence rose in
August but remained within the narrow range that has prevailed over the past
two years.”

“Consumers
continued to express mixed feelings in August. Compared to July, they were more
positive about business conditions, both current and future, but also more
concerned about the labour market.”

“Consumers’
assessments of the current labour situation, while still positive, continued to
weaken, and assessments of the labour market going forward were more
pessimistic. This likely reflects the recent increase in unemployment.
Consumers were also a bit less positive about future income.”

Watch also the Present Situation Index as it generally leads the Unemployment Rate.

Central bank speakers:

• 08:00 GMT – ECB’s Muller (neutral – voter)
• 13:00 GMT/09:00 ET – Fed’s Bowman (uber hawk – voter)
• 14:30 GMT/10:30 ET – ECB’s Knot (hawk – voter)
• 16:00 GMT/12:00 ET – ECB’s Nagel (hawk – voter)
• 17:00 GMT/13:00 ET – BoC’s Macklem (neutral – voter)

This article was written by Giuseppe Dellamotta at www.forexlive.com.