Futures are rallying after an ugly start to the month
Near 6:45 a.m. ET, Dow futures were up 85 points and had gained up to 100 earlier. S&P 500 futures were up 9 points, and Nasdaq futures were up about 19 points.
Stocks had the worst start to September in 13 years, and this is historically the weakest month of the year for US equities. On Tuesday, the three major indexes fell nearly 3%, and the S&P 500 dropped back into correction, defined as a 10% decline from recent highs.
Experts pointed, again, to concerns that the world economy is slowing down and what this means for US stocks. We got ISM manufacturing data from China and the eurozone, showing that the sector is softer in both regions. Meanwhile, we learned that Canada entered a recession after its economy shrank for a second straight quarter.
In a morning note to clients, Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid wrote: "One of the biggest problems we face is that there is no historical template for current global market conditions so we're all flying blind to a large degree. Never before have so many of the most important countries in the world printed so much money and left base rates at near zero for so long. Also never before has the largest economy in the world tried to start a slow process of reversing said extraordinary policy."
We're just two days away from getting the biggest jobs report in several years, since many market participants had wagered that the economy was improving at a decent enough pace to warrant a rate hike from the Federal Reserve later this month. Those bets have declined, but Friday's nonfarm payrolls data will still be incredibly significant.
And this morning, we'll get the first snapshot of how the labor market did last month through the ADP private payrolls numbers.
Other data due today include factory orders, and anecdotes on the economy contained in the Federal Reserve's beige book.
The Energy Information Administration is also set to release the weekly level of oil inventories. On Tuesday, West Texas Intermediate crude oil tanked more than 7% to wipe out its biggest three-day gain in 25 years, as the industry continues to assess the extent of oversupply in the market.
WTI was down nearly 3%, at around $44.21 per barrel on Wednesday morning.