See what’s driving market performance around the world in today’s Morning Lineup. Bespoke’s Morning Lineup is the best way to start your trading day. Read it now by starting a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium.  CLICK HERE to learn more and start your trial.

“The robots are not going to be taking over the world. That’s not going to happen.” – Donald Trump

Below is a snippet of commentary from today’s Morning Lineup. Start a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium to view the full report.  

Markets had a chance to sleep on yesterday’s Fed meeting, and on second thought, they like it!  S&P 500 futures are up more than 1%, while the Nasdaq is on pace to open with a gain closer to 1.5%. Helping equities, oil prices are lower, with WTI trading back below $100, and Treasury yields trading lower. Just as WTI is below $100, the 10-year yield is back below 5% to 4.95%. Gold prices are fractionally higher while Bitcoin is up 1.5% to just under $77K.

While it was a volatile afternoon in US markets after yesterday’s Fed meeting, Asian stocks finished the session with modest moves. The Nikkei traded 0.3% higher while onshore and offshore Chinese stocks traded down about 0.4%. The most surprising move, or lack thereof, was in South Korea, where the Kospi fell less than 0.05%.

European stocks are broadly higher in early trading. The STOXX 600 is up 0.5%, and all of the major country benchmarks are also up by similar amounts. The BoE kept its benchmark rate unchanged at 3.75%, but the decision wasn’t unanimous, as the vote was 6-3, and Governor Bailey said that if the war in Iran isn’t resolved, future rate hike (s) are likely soon.

It’s a busy day for economic data this morning with jobless claims, the Philly Fed, Housing Starts, and Building Permits all hitting the tape at 8:30, followed by Pending Home Sales at 10 AM. Jobless claims and the Philly Fed report both came in better than expected, while Building Permits and Housing Starts missed forecasts. AAII investor sentiment was also released earlier and showed a sharp drop in optimism. Bullish sentiment fell to 28.8% from 38.0% last week, while bearish sentiment spiked up to 53.3%. That’s the first time bears have been in the majority since April and the largest percentage since May of 2025.

In late July, Fed Chair Kevin Warsh made headlines following reports that he was exploring a reduction in the number of regularly scheduled rate-setting meetings from eight to six per year. Predictably, the financial media criticized the move because fewer Fed meetings mean less potential news to talk about. But what would the rationale be from the Fed Chair’s perspective? Factors like reducing market dependence on central bank communications and forward guidance were cited, but maybe it was simply the market’s reaction to Fed days.

We’re all familiar with the market’s tendency to show weakness on Fed days during Powell’s tenure, but so far it’s been even worse for Warsh. As shown in the chart below, after Warsh’s first meeting in late June, the S&P 500 fell 1.21%, and then in July it fell 1.52%. At one point yesterday, the S&P 500 was also down 1%, but some late-day buying softened the blow to a decline of 0.45%. When the market consistently trades down on Fed days, calls to limit the number of Fed days are understandable, but if this tide turns, we may start hearing calls for weekly Fed meetings. Everybody loves a winner!

In last week’s Bespoke Report, we highlighted the fact that while it seemed like investors have gotten off easy this month, historically, September weakness was back-end loaded. This week, we’ve started to see some additional weakness in markets, but even the 1.8% decline in the S&P 500 masks what has been a much weaker market under the surface.

As shown in the chart below, the only two sectors higher this month are Communication Services (3.6%) and Energy (0.5%). Every other sector is down at least 1% and six are down over 2%. At the index level, the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index is down nearly twice as much as the cap-weighted index. While equities have been weak, there’s also been no respite in the bond market as the 20+ Year US Treasury ETF (TLT) is down 2.0%. And this is all in the first half of the month!

Weak returns in the equity market have also pushed breadth to new multi-month lows. Even though the S&P 500 is only at its lowest level since early June, its cumulative advance/decline line has declined to the lowest level in more than 3 months.

Start a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium to continue reading today’s full Morning Lineup.