What’s Moving Markets: Infrastructure Bill, ISM, Vaccine Prices, China Cools 

The Senate agreed on a $1 trillion infrastructure bill. For July, the ISM put out its final PMI, while Chinese PMIs provided more proof of a slowdown, raised by the spread of Covid-19 outbreaks across some provinces and cities. Square is planning to buy Afterpay for $28 billion.

The earnings period continues with updates from Global Payments, and among others are Simon Property and Loews. Pfizer and Moderna experiences significant price increases in new contracts to supply the EU with vaccines.

1. Senate agrees on the infrastructure bill draft

U.S. Senators agreed on a $1 trillion infrastructure bill, and it might be voted in the Senate this week.

The bill gets bipartisan support in the Senate. Still, it seems to be held up in the House of Representatives, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi attached it to a separate $3.6 trillion spending package on fighting poverty and climate change.

In July, the Institute of Supply Management released its final purchasing managers index to manufacture more immediate economic impact. The flash index showed that manufacturing activity started to cool down slightly this month but remained close to historic highs.

2. China’s Covid-19 outbreak; economy slows in July

The delta variant of the virus maintains its spread in China. A total of 21 cities and 15 regions took measures to isolate cases in an outbreak that began last week after a flight from Russia arrived with an infected passenger.

Chinese data for new cases continue to be very low. There is little information on how efficient the Sinopharm vaccine is against the delta strain. Studies showed that it is less effective than the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines in preventing symptomatic disease.

3. Stocks will open higher as Fed officials reassure

U.S. stock markets will start the week higher, closer to new records after Federal Reserve officials stated at the weekend that the labour market requires to improve before the central bank reduces its bond purchases.