MNI Global Morning Briefing

By Les Commons

     LONDON (MNI) - Its a fairly quiet calendar across the board on Wednesday.

ECB Executive Board member Yves Mersch gets the session underway, speaking in

Riga, Latvia at 0620GMT.

     The batch of services PMIs for September gets gets going from 0715GMT when

Spain data is published. The prior reading in August was 52.7. Italy is next at

0745GMT. The August reading was 52.6. France follows this up at 0750GMT and in

August was the second highest out of the big four with a reading of 54.3. Up

next, at 0755GMT, is the leaders in August Germany, whose PMI reading was 56.5.

Finishing up Europe's services PMI is the Euro Area PMI at 0800GMT. The reading

was 54.4 in August, with the flash estimate for September at 54.7.

     The UK services PMI, due at 0830GMT, came in at 54.3 in August and is

expected to drop a touch to 54.0.

     August retail sales for the Euro Area are expected at 0900GMT. The previous

y/y growth rate was 1.1%.

     Chicago Federal Reserve Bank president Charles Evans is speaking in London

at 1030GMT.

     The US dominates the speeches calendar Wednesday, with little data to

report on. However, the US ISM nonmanufacturing index will be published at

1400GMT. The index is expected to fall very slightly to a reading of 58.1 in

September after jumping to 58.5 in August. The Philadelphia nonmanufacturing

index fell to 37.4, while the flash Markit Services index fell to 52.9 from 53.4

in August.

     Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank president Patrick Harker kicks off a wave

of speeches in the US at 1600GMT in Baltimore. This is followed up with the

Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Lael Brainard speaking in Chicago at

1815GMT.

     The penultimate speech is from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at

2000GMT in Washington D.C. Concluding these batch of speeches is Dallas Federal

Reserve bank president Rob Kaplan speaking in Kansas at 0000GMT.

     The trade balance for August in Australia is at 0130GMT. The previous

reading was a surplus of AUD 1.551 bn.

--MNI London Bureau; tel: +44 203-586-2225; email: les.commons@marketnews.com