Today's Highlights in the US Market: Employment Data and Earnings Reports to be Released Intensively

⑴ On Thursday, the US market will face employment data, multiple corporate earnings reports, a 5-year inflation-protected Treasury auction, and AI infrastructure-related results. The market is digesting earnings from Meta and Tesla, focusing on labor market data, Treasury yields, and corporate guidance in preparation for next week's Federal Reserve meeting. ⑵ Companies releasing earnings reports before the opening cover sectors including consumer, communications, defense, industrials, transportation, finance, energy, and materials. Key focus areas include consumer demand, pricing power, defense contracts, freight volume, energy profit margins, and company guidance. ⑶ At 20:30 Beijing time, initial and continuing jobless claims figures will be released. Initial claims are expected at around 200,000 (previous: about 199,000), continuing claims expected at around 1.72 million (previous: about 1.71 million). Weaker labor market data could support bonds and rekindle growth concerns, while stronger data would reinforce expectations for the Federal Reserve to remain cautious. ⑷ At 22:00 Beijing time, the September Conference Board Leading Economic Index will be announced, expected to decline 0.1% month-on-month (previous: down 0.1% as well), with attention on signs of slowing economic momentum. ⑸ At 1:00 a.m. Beijing time the following day, a 5-year inflation-protected Treasury auction will be held, with focus on the real yield, bid-to-cover ratio, and investor demand. Weak demand could depress real yields and weigh on interest rate-sensitive stocks. ⑹ Companies releasing earnings after the close will cover topics such as AI storage demand, cloud infrastructure, data center spending, AI data center power demand, gold prices and production costs, consumer spending, and competitiveness in semiconductors. The earnings release time for Intel is yet to be confirmed. ⑺ The market will also respond to Wednesday's earnings from Meta, Tesla, IBM, Lam Research, and Texas Instruments, focusing on AI capital expenditure, automotive profit margins, chip demand, and forward guidance. ⑻ The Federal Reserve is currently in a blackout period ahead of the October 27-28 FOMC meeting, with policymakers largely silent. Economic data, Treasury auctions, and earnings reports will drive interest rate expectations.