Your Morning Fix

• Brent crude futures and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures both finished down an average of 4.63% on Tuesday as the market expects a possible ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. Disappointing China stimulus efforts also capped expectations for demand.
• Wall Street main indexes recovered slightly from the 1% drop on Monday, with the Dow up by 0.3%, S&P 500 by 0.97%, and Nasdaq by 1.45% as investors anticipate September’s inflation report from the US.
• The Philippine unemployment rate eased to 4% in August from 4.7% in July and 4.4% in August 2023, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Tuesday. The total number of employed Filipinos rose to 49.15 million as of August, up from the 48.07 million in August 2023.
• The World Bank raised its economic growth forecast for the Philippines for this year to 6% from 5.8% and in 2025 to 6.1% from 5.9% as service exports and public investments are expected to improve, although weak consumption and investments could keep growth below pre-pandemic levels.
• According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), factory output slowed to 2.8% year-on-year in August, a four-month low, from 6.8% in July and 5.6% in August 2023 due to slower growth in electronics and food manufacturing.
• Written with the assistance of Microsoft 365 Copilot