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Global financial markets were mixed in the last session of the week as investors continue to navigate through interest rate cut expectations and new economic data. US University of Michigan consumer sentiment index improved to 78.8, the highest reading since July 2021, boosting the stock market and bringing the S&P 500 to a new record high.

In yesterday’s session, investors traded with a risk-on mood as the US Senate passed a bill that averted a government shutdown. The bill still has yet to pass the House of Representatives, but if it succeeds, the Federal government will be able to fund itself until early March.

Yesterday investors traded cautiously as the threat of a possible US government shutdown by the end of the week and “high for longer” interest rates continue to lead the narrative. Investors were also at odds with Minneappolis Fed President Neel Kashkari’s dovish tone regarding interest rates path ahead.

Investors ended the week on a cautious note: trading volumes were light and most asset prices were little changed. Sovereign bond yields were largely unchanged in the eurozone, while rising slightly in the US despite most Fed officials who spoke in recent weeks tended to lean towards a pause in the hiking cycle at the September meeting.

In yesterday’s session, investors traded cautiously as they awaited  key economic data later this week (US CPI inflation) and the ECB monetary policy decision on Thursday. The main economic event yesterday was the downward revision of the European Commission’s summer GDP forecasts.

In yesterday's session, investors' attention focused on the ECB monetary policy meeting, where interest rates were hiked by 25bp to 4.0% (depo) and 4.5% (refi). More importantly, the ECB said that these levels, if maintained for a sufficiently long period, might not need to be raised further to return inflation back to 2%.

Financial markets ended the week digesting Thursday’s ECB rate decision. If investors initially interpreted Lagarde’s speech as implying a slightly dovish bias going forward, several ECB officials pushed back against such interpretations on Friday, pushing European sovereign bond yields up, peripheral spreads to widen, and a steepening of the curve.

Investors began the week focused on Wednesday’s FOMC meeting and weighing the impact of the steady rise in crude oil prices, with the Brent benchmark rising a further 0.7% during the session. In this context, European sovereign bond yields rose across the board, as did US short-term benchmarks.

Today’s FOMC meeting remained the focus of investor attention in yesterday’s session, with markets currently pricing in the Fed to keep rates unchanged. On the data front, US new home construction fell to its lowest level since 2020 as higher mortgage rates in August appear to have cooled demand.

The Fed delivered a hawkish pause yesterday, leaving interest rates unchanged but acknowledging a strong US economy. The dot-plot projects a tighter policy through 2024 and 2025, consistent with rates higher for longer. US stock indices fell and US Treasury yields rose on the news, with the yield curve flattening, while the USD appreciated.

During yesterday’s session investors largely digested the Fed’s hawkish pause on Wednesday, positioning further into the narrative of a soft landing for the US economy and higher interest rates for longer. Thus European and US government bond yields rose in the medium and long term, and either fell or remained unchanged in the short term.

Financial markets ended the week giving mixed signals from both sides of the Atlantic. In Europe, flash PMI data for September showed a slight improvement in business activity, albeit still signalling economic contraction amid a weak German manufacturing sector, pushing up government bond yields and dragging most equity indices lower.

In the first session of the week, central banks remained the focus of investors’ attention, as they continue to digest the high-for-longer rhetoric. Yesterday, the hawkish tone of some FOMC members’ comments pushed US 10-year Treasury yields higher, fluctuating above 4.5%, a level not seen since late 2007.

Yesterday’s session saw global equity markets mostly lower and government bond yields rising as investors continued to digest the “higher for longer” interest rate narrative and some weaker than expected US economic data releases.

Investors’ perception that  central banks will still need to increase interest rates in this hiking cycle was the main driver in yesterday’s session. The release of the last ECB meeting minutes and the somewhat higher-than-expected September CPI inflation data for the US fueled this expectation.

In the first session of the week, investors traded with a risk-off mood amid the escalation of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the macroeconomic front there were no relevant data releases.

Investors’ concerns over economic growth outlook ahead, and the decrease in the probability of an additional interest rate hike from the US Federal Reserve this year were the main drivers in yesterday’s session.  

In yesterday’s session, economic sentiment data releases were the focus of investors’ attention. In both Europe and the US, better-than-expected, but still weak economic data, pushed sovereign yields down on both sides of the Atlantic amid an upward trend in previous sessions.

Friday´s session was clouded by the risk that geopolitical tensions in the Middle East could escalate further causing a sustained rise in oil prices. On the economic side, US University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment fell from 68 to 63 from last month and China exports fell, although by less than expected by the consensus.

Investor sentiment improved amid diplomatic efforts to avoid the Israeli-Hamas conflict from spreading in the Middle East, with US Secretary of State Blinken arriving in Israel for talks and both President Biden and German chancellor Scholz planning a visit later this week.