rates by a quarter percentage point at the conclusion of its meeting on Wednesday and will be listening to comments by Chair Jerome Powell to get a sense of the central bank's position on what happens next as it tries to navigate a soft landing for the economy.
The week ahead is also set to be the busiest one of earnings season, with Thursday being the most intense day. About 40% of the Dow and 30% of the S&P 500 will give their financial updates during the week, including Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta. Several big pharma companies are getting ready to report and it's a big week for industrial companies and big oil as well.Wall Street cut China’s GDP forecast many times this year.
The U.S. investment bank most recently cut its China GDP forecast in July to 5%, down from 5.5% previously. That came alongside cuts this month by Citi and Morgan Stanley to 5%.Australia's business activity contracts for the first time since March Services PMI went below the 50 no-change mark to 48, down from 50.1 in June. In contrast, manufacturing activity posted a softer contraction at 49.6 compared to the 48.2 seen in June.