The New York Stock Exchange wants to delay when companies can drop big news after the closing bell

• Aparajita Saxena, Reuters

• 20h
• 701

Traders work on the floor of the NYSE in New York Thomson Reuters

The New York Stock Exchange filed a proposal on Tuesday to delay the release of important company news immediately after official closing time to reduce investor confusion and market disruption.

Publishing information after 4:00 p.m. can cause a company's stock to trade in other markets at materially different prices than that of NYSE's closing auction, the exchange operator said in a letterto the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

If the proposal passes, listed companies will have to delay news releases till 4:05 p.m., or until the time the NYSE publishes the stock's closing price for the day, whichever comes first.

Designated market makers (DMMs) usually complete closing auctions for securities assigned to them within five minutes of the official closing time, the exchange said.

Some companies issue statements, including earnings reports, which could adversely affect their stock prices, after U.S. markets close.

As part of the proposed change, a listed company would not be able to issue important news between the official closing time and completion of the closing auction.

DMMs, formerly known as "specialists", operate both manually and electronically to facilitate price discovery during market openings, closings and during periods of substantial trading imbalances or instability for thousands of NYSE-listed stocks.

In order for the change to take effect, an SEC approval is needed. 

(Reporting By Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Martina D'Couto)

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China's economy provided something for both the bulls and bears in August

DAVID SCUTT 

AUG 31, 2017, 11:27 AM

Photo: Mohd Rasfan/AFP/Getty Images

China’s economy offered something for both the bulls and bears in August, according to data released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) today.

The nation’s manufacturing Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) came in at 51.7 in August, beating expectations for a decline to 51.3.

It was also stronger than the 51.4 level previously reported in July.

The PMI measures changes in activity levels across China’s manufacturing sector from one month to the next. Anything above 50 signals that activity levels are improving while a reading below suggests they’re deteriorating. The distance away from 50 indicates how quickly activity levels are expanding or contracting.

So at 51.7, that means that activity levels across the sector improved at a faster pace than July.

The NBS said that the PMI for large manufacturers fell 0.1 points to 52.8, while that for mid-tier firms improved after deteriorating in July, rising 1.4 points to 51.0. Smaller manufacturers remained the laggard, coming in at 49.1, up 0.2 points from one month earlier.

By activity subindex, production and new orders grew at a faster pace than July.

New export orders grew at a slower pace, indicating that the strength in orders was largely domestic in August.

Of note, prices for raw materials and finished products both increased at a rapid pace, indicating that higher input costs are being passed on to customers.

However, while activity levels across the manufacturing sector picked up, the same can’t be said for other sectors of the economy which saw activity levels improve at a slower pace than a month earlier.

The separate non-manufacturing PMI from the NBS, capturing the performance of China’s non-industrial sectors such as services and construction, fell to 53.4, below the 54.5 level of July.

That means that while activity levels continued to improve, they did so at a slower pace.

Indeed, as seen in the chart below, the PMI was the lowest level since May 2016.

The NBS said that new orders grew at a slower pace while those from abroad fell after a solid increase in July.

Not the best news given this is a lead indicator on activity levels across non-manufacturing sectors in the future.

In a further sign that construction activity is cooling following measures from policymakers to slow rapid house price, the PMI measuring construction activity fell to 58.0, down 4.5 points on one month earlier.

Although still pointing to a rapid improvement, it was well below the levels reported in the first half of the year.

Following the release of the government’s PMI reports today, market attention will now turn to the release of the Caixin-IHS Markit China PMI reports in the coming days.

They’re private sector surveys, and tend to generate more of a reaction across financial markets than the the official PMI reports.

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GOLDMAN SACHS: Hurricane Harvey makes a government shutdown less likely

• Joe Ciolli
 

• 24h
• 2,118

Goldman Sachs says it's now less likely that the US government will shut down in early October. Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Images

Hurricane Harvey has made it less likely that the US government will experience a shutdown in early October, Goldman Sachs says.

The firm lowered its probability to 35%, down from the 50% forecast it had maintained over the past couple of weeks, citing the ongoing natural disaster.

"Allowing a partial government shutdown when federal relief efforts are underway would pose greater political risks than under normal circumstances, raising the probability that lawmakers will find a way to resolve disagreements," Alec Phillips, the firm's political economist in Washington, wrote in a client note.

Congressional leaders are likely to combine efforts to allocate more funds for disaster relief with "legislation to extend federal spending authority and/or raise the debt limit," Phillips said. He sees that increasing their chances of resolving the impasse ahead of a shutdown.

Congress has historically appropriated more relief funds following major US hurricanes, said Goldman, which also provided this handy visual guide:

Congress is likely to appropriate further emergency funds. Goldman Sachs

This is not to say the looming threat of a shutdown has been eliminated. Phillips noted that President Donald Trump had said one may be in the cards if his border-wall initiative isn't funded.

He also said an extension of spending authority would probably be temporary, which would simply postpone the threat of a shutdown rather than eliminate it.

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