Geoffrey Smith 

Investing.com — The Federal Reserve has a lot of speakers and there are many jobless claims. There is also an auction for inflation-linked Treasury bonds that you should be watching for as part of your daily review on U.S. interest rate outlook. China moves forward to address one of its biggest problems in the real estate sector. India’s payment champion is forced to make an ugly fall upon its debut on the stock market. Nvidia (NASDAQ 🙂 will lead U.S. stocks higher when the markets open. According to reports, oil continues to fall despite the possibility that some of the largest global consumers might coordinate an increase in strategic reserves. What you need to know for financial markets on Thursday, November 18th. 

1. Fed speakers, Fed auctions and jobless claims galore 

It’s a busy day for those trying to track the evolution of the Federal Reserve’s thinking on interest rates. The day will feature speeches by the regional presidents of Chicago, New York City, San Francisco, Atlanta, as well as comments on inflation’s 30-year-high and weekly data about jobless claims. These reports will be released at 8:30 am ET (1330 GMT). Analysts anticipate that initial claims will drop to a post-pandemic low, at 260,000.

JPMorgan (NYSE) was joined Wednesday by Goldman Sachs, (NYSE). Citigroup (NYSE: Morgan Stanley (NYSE) in changing its house perspective on the upcoming tightening cycle. JPM sees September as the beginning of the next interest rate rise.

There may also be more interest than usual on the Treasury’s auction of inflation-protected 10-year notes at 1 PM ET, given that yields on such paper have fallen close to all-time lows recently.

2. China’s National Team bails out Huarong 

China intensified its efforts to prevent the slow-motion train wreck that is accelerating in its realty sector from continuing.

China Huarong Asset Management is a specialist in distressed debt investing and will receive an injection up to $6.6 million from China Life and Citic. That will dilute the Finance Ministry’s directly-held stake below 50%.  The Finance Ministry will also be selling its Huarong Bank stake of 40.53% and Huarong Financial leasing stake of 80%.

Recapitalization is a further step in stabilizing the vessel that holds much of China’s most dangerous developer debt. Huarong’s former chairman was executed in January for financial crimes.

3. Nvidia boosts stock prices so they open higher

The U.S. stock market is expected to open higher tomorrow, recovering some of the Wednesday losses that came after another troubling batch of retail earnings.

At 6:20 am ET, they were up 77 point, or 0.2%, at 36,007, points while were up 0.4%, and were up 0.6%.

Nvidia is likely to be the focus of attention later. This buoyant outlook for the next quarters following Wednesday’s bell, which was one reason for sentiment turning around, is one reason why the stock market has been so positive. Cisco Systems (NASDAQ 🙂 will likely be the one going in the reverse direction. Their problems with supply chains and input cost issues are well-documented in their quarterly report.

Use Intuit (NASDAQ:) and Advanced Materials lead a much-diminished earnings roster Thursday – and both of them report late.

4. India’s Paytm fails to succeed in a massive IPO

Perhaps someone does hear a ring at the top in other markets. India’s largest domestic fintech, Paytm, fell 26% on its debut overnight, amid concerns about valuation and its unclear path to profitability.

It’s the latest, and by some way the biggest, company to fall flat on its debut in Mumbai, although a series of expensive IPOs still hasn’t derailed the benchmark SENSEX index, which is still only 5% off last month’s record high.

India’s stock market has risen some 50% in the last 12 months as the country has defied doomsayers to overcome Covid-19 epidemic. Even though there have been signs of an increase in case numbers in Asia and North America, the trend hasn’t changed in recent weeks.

5. On the back of talks about a coordinated reserve-release, oil continues to slide 

After Chinese officials confirmed their interest in a coordinated release strategic petroleum reserves, the Chinese authorities continued to support lower crude oil prices.

Futures had fallen 0.1% by 6:01 AM ET to $77.13/barrel, and 0.1% down at $80.24/barrel

Although prices fell to their lowest levels in six months overnight, data from U.S. Government showed that there was a sharp fall in gasoline and crude inventories over the past week.