One of the worst weeks for the stock market this year is coming to a close, but the worst may not be over. An article in Reuters explained that fears over the health of China's economy will continue to be a focus of the country, along with the question of whether the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates next month.
"China, the epicenter of the week's moves, is set to remain in focus over the next week as markets attempt to assess whether the worst of the sell-off has been seen," said Philip Shaw, chief economist at Investec. "Despite September lift-off seemingly now off the cards, the timing of the FOMC's decision to raise interest rates thereafter remains data-dependent, hence Friday's non-farm payrolls report will still be a release worth watching."
New York Fed President William Dudley calmed the market earlier this week when he said the prospect of a September rate hike "seems less compelling" than it was only weeks ago.
"At this moment, the decision to begin the normalization process at the September FOMC meeting seems less compelling to me than it was a few weeks ago," Dudley said.
The impact of Black Monday went far enough to damage housing stock as well, with the collapse hitting the stocks that drive the housing and mortgage finance economy worse than the major indices in early trading.
Meanwhile, the volatility in China did push mortgage rates lower, with Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey posting that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.84%, for the week ending Aug. 27, 2015.
