This Week's Trade in Markets: September 28th
Today there is not much on the side of macro data; the main event in focus seems to be the SpaceX launch. Tuesday: August JOLTS Report
Then on Tuesday is the August JOLTS report (releasing Tuesday, September 29, 2026, at 10:00 AM ET):
Release Schedule: Tuesday, September 29, 2026, at 10:00 AM ET.
Prior Metric (July): 7.271 million job openings.
Consensus Forecast: Expected around 7.10M to 7.23M job openings.
Key Components: Total job openings, hiring velocity, total separations, quits rate, and layoffs/discharges.
JOLTS could well be a leading indicator towards the next big Non-Farm Payrolls (NFP) report to give traders and investors—but more importantly the Fed (US central bank)—a bit more insight on their decision-making on the dollar. Wednesday: Core PCE Price Index
On Wednesday, this week's big market event is of course PCE (Personal Consumption Expenditures) price data, the Fed's preferred gauge of inflation:
Release Schedule: Wednesday, September 30, 2026, at 8:30 AM ET.
Prior Metric (July): 3.3% annualized growth (+0.2% MoM).
Consensus Forecast: Expected near 0.2% MoM (~3.3% to 3.4% YoY).
Key Components: Personal spending, income growth, and core inflation excluding food and energy.
PCE data is going to be paramount in this week's market events, with investors and central banks looking for PCE to come back under the 3% range and back towards the 2% inflation target on the Fed's mandate. Thursday: Initial Jobless Claims
Thursday we have the weekly data release of initial jobless claims. Friday: September Non-Farm Payrolls (NFP)
Friday makes way for another big market mover with NFP (Non-Farm Payrolls):
Release Schedule: Friday, October 2, 2026, at 8:30 AM ET.
Prior Metric (August): 162K jobs added.
Consensus Forecast: Expected around 120K to 127K job additions.
Key Components: Headline non-farm employment additions, Unemployment Rate (expected ~4.1%), Average Hourly Earnings (wage growth MoM/YoY), and Labor Force Participation Rate.
Macro & Micro Summary
With PCE and Non-Farm Payrolls (NFP), it could be quite an action-packed week in markets on the macroeconomic side—especially if out of the two high-impact news catalysts this week we get a surprise and deviation in the macro data for markets to reprice itself.
On the micro earnings story this week, it is a limited number of events, but we do have earnings from CarMax, Nike, and more, with the main earnings report this week coming from Micron (ticker: MU).