Asia
Japan’s stock markets maintained their winning run on Wednesday, although gains were marginal as services data for September came in exactly on forecast.
China’s stock markets remain closed but Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index posted another strong gain in the trading session, rising 200 points to 28,379.18.
Europe
Spain’s political divisions continue to grip European investors, pushing up the country’s bond yields and depressing its stock market, with the Ibex index falling 2% to just over 10,000 points – from a level over 11,000 just six months ago. The euro briefly dipped below 1.17 against the dollar in morning trading, having been over 1.20 just a month ago.
Germany’s main Dax index managed to move into positive territory to hit a new record high just below 13,000 points. France’s Cac 40 was slighlty lower on Tuesday’s levels but was still within touching distance of record highs seen in May this year.
With the release of services data, the eurozone composite purchasing managers indices (PMI) came in on forecast at 56.7, which indicates expansion across construction, manufacturing and service sectors. Nevertheless, eurozone retail sales for August grew by just 1.2% year on year, around half of July’s growth level, and the monthly sales were lower month on month.
In the UK, currency investors were preoccupied with two main events: the prime minister's upcoming speech at the Conservative Party conference, and the service sector data for September. So far this week the PMIs for manufacturing and construction have come in below forecasts, but today’s services data surprised on the upside at 53.6. As this is the last economic reading of the quarter, analysts have estimated Britain’s third-quarter growth at just 0.3% - the same as in the second quarter.
Britain’s biggest supermarket Tesco (TSCO) released interim results on Wednesday, which showed a jump in pre-tax profits for the last six months to £562 million. The company also restored its dividend for the first time in three years to 1p a share for the first half – this is expected to rise to 3p for the full year. Nevertheless, shares fell as investors fretted about sustainable sales growth, especially in the food division.
North America
The standout economic release in the US is September’s services data, which will be released just after the stock market opens, and which will tee up Friday’s non-farm payroll numbers on Friday. Today sees ADP employment data for September, which is expected to show that the US economy added 140,000 jobs in the month. Otherwise, there are weekly crude oil inventories and weekly mortgage applications.
Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen is speaking at a community banking event. In corporate news, PepsiCo (PEP) will release earnings covering the period up to the end of the third quarter 2017. Monsanto (MON) is also reporting figures to the market.