Economy

The Fed is scheduled to release the minutes from its Aug. 1. gathering this afternoon, but with no interest rate hike at the meeting, some economists think the FOMC had time to discuss "big ticket" issues. Watch for continued discussion of what is a neutral rate - the level that is not stimulating the economy but also not constraining it - as well as talk on the yield curve and trade policy.

Planned ministerial talks yesterday between U.S. and Mexican officials have been postponed until today as the two sides aim for a breakthrough in the revamp of the NAFTA. Meanwhile, the incoming government of President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador reportedly wants to prevent a new chapter on energy investment from being included in the pact, something the current Mexican team and its U.S. and Canadian counterparts had already agreed upon.

U.S. and Chinese mid-level officials are also set to resume contentious trade talks today, hoping to set a framework for further negotiations as each country prepares to hit the other with a new round of tariffs on Thursday. The two days of meetings are the first formal U.S.-China trade discussions since U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross met Chinese economic adviser Liu He in Beijing in June.

North Korea is continuing to develop its nuclear program, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, despite an agreement reached in June between Washington and Pyongyang to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. Asked about the report, a White House National Security Council spokesman referred to national security adviser John Bolton's assertion earlier this month that President Trump was holding diplomatic doors open for Kim Jong-un.

Germany is calling for the formation of a new payments system independent of the U.S., as well as creating a European Monetary Fund and building up an independent SWIFT system, as a means of rescuing the Iranian nuclear deal. "It's essential that we strengthen European autonomy," wrote Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in Handelsblatt, stating Europe should not allow the U.S. to act "over our heads and at our expense."

EU financial services chief Valdis Dombrovskis has warned that the bloc will be strict in policing Britain's rights of access to the region's market after Brexit, but welcomed U.K. proposals to build access for the City of London around EU rules, known as "equivalence." Market access should never be taken for granted, he cautioned, with Brussels determined to toughen its assessments of whether countries meet the conditions.