CNBC Daily Open: Summer of discontent

This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our new, international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.

Nasty September
U.S. stock futures edged higher as the market is set to enter the last week of trading in September with big losses. The S&P 500 has fallen 4.2% this month, on pace for its second straight losing month and its worst month since December. Stocks have struggled as the Federal Reserve signaled higher interest rates for longer, sending bond yields rising. U.S. stocks retreated Friday in a fourth straight day of losses for the three major benchmark indexes. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 106.58 points, or 0.31%, to close at 33,963.84. The S&P 500 shed 0.23% to 4,320.06. The Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.09% to 13,211.81.

Will they, won’t they?
The clock is ticking, again. U.S. lawmakers over the weekend were not optimistic on a budget resolution that would keep the government funded for the remainder of the fiscal year. Current spending laws are due to expire on Sept. 30. That means if Congress does not reach an agreement before 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 1, the government will shut down. House Republicans on Thursday sent the chamber into recess, delaying further developments in the negotiations.

$100 an oil barrel next?
Russia imposed an indefinite ban on the export of diesel and gasoline to most countries, a move that risks disrupting fuel supplies ahead of winter and threatens to exacerbate global shortages. The ban, which came into immediate effect and applies to all countries apart from four former Soviet states, does not have an end date. The countries exempt from the ban include Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, all of which are members of the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union.

Burgeoning debt
Credit card companies are racking up losses at the fastest pace in almost 30 years, outside of the Great Financial Crisis, according to Goldman Sachs — and it is far from over, the firm predicts.

[PRO] The oversold and the overbought on the S&P500
Investors on Wall Street are contending with the latest forward guidance from the Federal Reserve, which has helped underpin an overall losing week for major indexes. CNBC screened FactSet data to examine what equities traders are betting on, or fleeing, as macroeconomic uncertainty continues.

Hollywood writers and producers are nearing 150 days into their strike, but a major sticking point has been language over the use of artificial intelligence, two sources familiar with the negotiations said Saturday.

Even U.S. President Joe Biden is looking to check out the fuss in Michigan this week, after the United Auto Workers boss Shawn Fain invited him to join the striking autoworkers.

Biden’s hastily arranged trip is happening only 24 hours before a former — and a prospective — election foe, former President Donald Trump is also scheduled to arrive in the state to show his own solidarity with the autoworkers.

And it’s not just them.

About $5.2 billion in cargo was stuck off West Coast ports in June at the height of the “slow and go” pace of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union workforce as a result of unresolved issues in negotiations with port management.

Workers are getting desperate after decades of rising income inequality.

Some 362,000 workers have gone on strike so far in 2023, compared with 36,600 over the same period two years ago, according to data by Johnnie Kallas, a Ph.D. candidate at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and the project director of the ILR Labor Action Tracker.

This desperation may start impacting the U.S. economy if the series of labor-management conflicts persists.

Desperation and inequality may well be the unknown wild cards.