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Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day

Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day

(Bloomberg) --

Decision day at the Bank of England, Wall Street backing moderate Democrats, and Apple earnings due. Here are some of the things people in markets are talking about today.

Super Thursday

Investors expect no monetary policy change from the Bank of England when it announces its latest decision at 8 a.m. Eastern Time this morning. The release of the decision will be accompanied by an updated inflation report and be followed by a press conference with Mark Carney 30 minutes later. As usual in the U.K. these days, it is Brexit that is dominating discussions, so any comments from the governor on that issue will be closely watched. The pound is rallying this morning on reports that U.K. banks may have continued access to European Union markets after the country leaves the bloc. 

Picking a side

For the first time in a decade, securities and investment industries are spending more on Democrats than Republicans ahead of the Nov. 6 midterm elections. While some of that may be anti-Trump, much of the money is flowing to moderate Democrats who would be less likely to support harsh sanctions on Wall Street. On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump restated his promise for a 10 percent tax cut for the middle class, now saying it will come next year, rather then ahead of the vote. He also doubled down on his vow to deny U.S. citizenship to children born of unauthorized immigrants. 

Apple

Analysts will look to Apple Inc.’s holiday season guidance when the company announces earnings after the market close today.  Sales of the company’s flagship product, the iPhone, remain key to its fortunes, with expectations for 48.4 million units in the quarter just passed and 77.7 million over the holiday quarter. Among the other companies reporting today are DowDuPont Inc., Starbucks Corp., and Spotify Technologies SA.

Markets rise

Overnight the MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.2 percent, while Japan’s Topix index closed 0.9 percent lower after NTT Docomo Inc. announced it was cutting its customer rates. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index was 0.6 percent higher at 5:50 a.m. as positive corporate results helped offset a slide in oil producers. S&P 500 futures pointed to a gain at the open, the 10-year Treasury yield was at 3.168 percent and gold rebounded. 

Coming up…

Investors get one last look at the health of the U.S. labor market this morning ahead of tomorrow payrolls number when weekly jobless claims is published at 8:30 a.m. Yesterday’s better than expected ADP employment report showed 227,000 positions were added, and estimates for payrolls growth currently stand at 200,000. Market manufacturing PMI is at 9:45 a.m. with ISM manufacturing at 10:00 a.m. U.S. automakers will report October sales figures throughout the day. 

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This is what's caught our eye over the last 24 hours.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Natasha Doff at ndoff@bloomberg.net, Cecile Gutscher

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