It’s the first official day of fall, confirmed by the weather outside and NY sports teams doing their best to smush the hopes of their fanbases. It was a quiet overnight session as markets awaited the arrival of President Xi in Washington this afternoon and Mark Zuckerberg’s keynote at Meta’s Connect conference after the close. The NYSE helped fill the void as we welcomed First Lady Melania Trump to the trading floor as she rang the Opening Bell.

European yields moved steadily higher throughout the morning after flash PMI’s, and oil began to rise as well. The S&P 500 opened flat and headed down from there as yields continued to climb globally. Oil has been volatile which has also pushed equities around. The S&P is currently off -0.6%. Mega caps are underperforming. European yields moved steadily higher throughout the morning after strong flash PMI’s, and oil began to rise as well. The S&P 500 opened flat and headed down from there as yields continued to climb globally. Oil has been volatile which has also pushed equities around. Utilities are lagging with yields rising, along with Discretionary (travel & leisure weak).

US flash PMIs were released and showed economic activity was better than expected and rose from last month. Treasury yields were up earlier in the day, then took another leg higher on the PMI data and continued to rise through Fed governor Barr’s speech. Yields are up 10-plus bp across the curve as the 2y hits 4.90%- reminder fed funds is at 3.75% - 4.00%. Brent is up over 3% while WTI is up 1% but off its highs after Politico reported that the White House was working on a temporary diesel export ban. Diesel had been pulling back and fell further on the news. However, a White House official said the report was actually “fake news”, causing diesel to bounce off its lows and keeping equities from bouncing further.