Here are the top five things you need to know in financial markets on Friday, September 23:
1. Global stocks take a breather
Asian stocks closed mostly lower on Friday, but held near 14-month highs in a week that saw stocks surge on the back of policy decisions from both the Bank of Japan and the Federal Reserve (Fed) .
European also retreated on Friday as both the euro zone and German business activity fell more than expected and the French economy unexpectedly contracted.
U.S. futures pointed to a session of profit-taking after the Dow Jones and S&P 500 turned positive for the month, while the Nasdaq composite hit a new all-time high and posted a second consecutive record close. At 6:09AM ET (10:09AM GMT), the blue-chip Dow futures slipped 17 points, or 0.09%, S&P 500 futures dropped 3 points, or 0.14%, and the Nasdaq 100 futures lost 6 points, or 0.13%.
2. Euro zone business activity hits 20-month low, U.S. manufacturing PMI on tap
The euro area composite purchasing managers’ index (PMI) fell to 52.6 in September, its weakest rate of expansion since the beginning of 2015.
Markit will publish its preliminary read of activity in the U.S. manufacturing sector for September at 9:45AM ET (13:45GMT).
3. Fed speakers on the docket
In the wake of the Fed’s decision to leave rates unchanged several policymakers were on tap to speak on Friday.
Philadelphia Fed president Patrick Harker will kick off a regional Fed presidents panel to discuss the role of the central bank in the community. Atlanta Fed chief Dennis Lockhart and Cleveland Fed president Loretta Mester will participate.
Separately, Dallas Fed president Robert Kaplan will make an appearance at the Texas Oil & Gas Association Lone Star Energy Forum.
Markets are currently pricing in just a 10.3% chance of a rate hike at the Fed’s next meeting in November, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool. For December, odds stood at 53.1%.
4. Oil slips for first time this week ahead of OPEC informal talks
U.S. crude prices fell for the first time this week, but was still on track for weekly gains of almost 6% as investors took profits ahead of informal talks among OPEC members next week to discuss the possibility of a production freeze.
Meanwhile, Iran and Saudi Arabia were reportedly holding private talks over the possibility of reaching a deal ahead of the group meeting. Earlier this year, output freeze discussions broke down when Saudi Arabia decided that Iran should join in the freeze, despite the fact that Tehran had said it wouldn’t consider the possibility until reaching pre-sanction levels of production.
Investors looked ahead to the Baker Hughes rig count data later in the day. The prior week saw the number of U.S. rigs drilling for oil increase for the 11th time in 12 weeks.
5. Shares of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) hit record high
Amazon closed on Thursday with gains of 1.89% at $804.70, a record closing high that pushed its market capitalization to more $380 billion, more than double its worth in April 2015 when the stock pushed past $400 per share.
Amazon is the fourth largest U.S. company by market cap, following Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT).