The news shaping the markets today

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin survived an assassination attempt while travelling to his official residence in his limousine. US WTI crude oil futures rose in forex trading this morning.

China’s retail trade grew by 5.4% year-over-year in August, following a 2.7% rise in the previous month. However, the CNY/USD forex pair remained under pressure.

Singapore’s non-oil domestic exports climbed by 11.4% year-over-year in August, following a 7% growth in July. This being the strongest growth in NODX since May sent the SGD/USD pair higher in forex trading this morning.

New Zealand’s BusinessNZ Performance of Manufacturing Index improved to 54.9 in August, from a reading of 53.5 a month ago. Despite this, the NZD/USD forex pair declined mainly on the strength of the US dollar.

Argentina’s central bank raised its Leliq interest rate by 550bps to 75% at its September meeting. However, the ARS/USD pair fell slightly in forex trading this morning.

What’s happening: Shares of Adobe Inc. fell sharply on Thursday, after the company released results for its third quarter.

What happened: Adobe reported in-line sales and upbeat earnings for the quarter.

The company also announced its largest-ever acquisition during the earnings call.

How were the results: The San Jose, California-based company reported growth in sales for its third quarter, with the top line coming in line with market views.

• Revenues grew 13% year-over-year to $4.43 billion, in line with market expectations.
• Earnings came in at $3.40 per share, topping the consensus estimate of $3.33 per share.

Why it matters: While reporting the quarterly results, Adobe announced plans to acquire Figma. The web-first collaborative design platform witnessed a surge in demand during the covid-19 pandemic due to an increase in remote working.

Adobe said it had agreed to acquire Figma for $20 billion in a cash and stock deal. The transaction represents the company’s biggest M&A announcement in its history. Figma

Figma’s CEO Dylan Field will continue to lead the team and will report to Adobe’s Digital Media business President, David Wadhwani. Adobe expects the deal to close in 2023, subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals.

“The combination of Adobe and Figma is transformational and will accelerate our vision for collaborative creativity,” Adobe’s CEO Shantanu Narayen said during the earnings call.

Management also projected fourth-quarter revenues of approximately $4.52 billion, slightly lower than the Street expectations of $4.58 billion. The company guided to quarterly earnings of around $3.50 per share, higher than market views of $3.45 per share.

How shares responded: Adobe’s shares fell 16.8% to close at $309.13 on Thursday, following the release of quarterly results. The stock has lost around 31% over the past month.

What to watch: Investors will be keeping an eye on the closing of the deal, as the transaction is expected to provide a huge boost to Adobe’s results in the years ahead.

The markets today

US stocks will be in focus today ahead of consumer sentiment data

Context: Wall Street stocks closed lower on Thursday, following the release of a basket of economic reports

Details: US markets had opened on a positive note on Thursday but gave up gains later in the session. Investors turned cautious in the volatile trading session, despite the release of some better-than-expected economic reports ahead of the much-awaited interest rate decision from the Federal Reserve next week.

US retail sales unexpectedly recovered in August, amid an increase in motor vehicle sales. Retail sales grew 0.3% in August, following a decline of 0.4% in the previous month. Analysts had expected a flat reading for August.

The Labor Department also reported a decline in initial jobless claims to the lowest level since the end of May. The number of people filing new claims for jobless benefits fell by 5,000 to 213,000 in the week ending September 10, versus market views of 226,000.

Industrial production fell 0.2% in August and business inventories grew 0.6% in July, after rising by 1.4% in the earlier month.

The Dow Jones index declined 173.27 points, or 0.56%, to close at 30,961.82, while the S&P 500 fell 1.13%, to 3,901.35 and the Nasdaq 100 tumbled 1.71% to settle at 11,927.49 on Thursday.

What to watch: Investors await the release of consumer sentiment data from the US today. Analysts expect the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index to improve to 58.6 in September, from a reading of 58.2 in August.

Markets will also keep an eye on the Fed’s interest rate decision, which is due on Wednesday next week.

Other Markets: European trading indices closed mostly lower on Thursday, with the DAX 40, CAC 40 and STOXX Europe 600 Index down by 0.55%, 1.04% and 0.65%, respectively, and the FTSE 100 traded higher by 0.07%.

Support & resistances for today

Market snapshot

What else to watch today

European Union’s passenger car registrations and Eurozone’s inflation rate, UK’s retail sales, Austria’s inflation rate, Czech Republic’s producer price inflation, France’s new car registrations, Italy’s balance of trade and inflation rate, Central Bank of Russia’s interest rate decision, India’s foreign exchange reserves, Poland’s core consumer prices, Canada’s housing starts, foreign investment in Canadian securities and wholesale sales, Israel’s money supply M1, Colombia’s balance of trade, US Baker Hughes crude oil rigs, net long-term TIC flows, net treasury international capital flows and net purchases of US treasury bonds and notes, China’s foreign direct investment, South Africa’s SACCI business confidence index, as well as Spain’s consumer confidence indicator.