THE HALF FULL GLASS

Edito The markets have clearly decided to only focus on the week’s good news. Fairly surprisingly, the announcement that new tariffs were being applied to Chinese products (200bil. USD) did not lead to any more spikes in stress. The gradual character of American tariffs and the restraint of China’s response (60bil. products taxed) have (temporarily) soothed fears. In addition, the decision by the Chinese authorities to support growth was once again confirmed, this time by the announcement of a measure for development and support of consumer credit; we’ll have to monitor future Chinese indicators closely. Next week, the mood could change, with: - the FOMC which will be held on Wednesday 26: while a 25bp hike is broadly expected, attention will focus on the dots, on which the market has started to converge in the last few days, and on how growth and inflation predictions are updated. - the update in Italy’s stability program planed for Thursday September 27, which will finally clarify the M5S-Lega government’s objectives in terms of growth and public deficit