Hello friends and Fortune readers.
This week starts with a meeting of the world’s top leaders in New York City and ends with a look at how the U.S. labor market fared in September. In between, Congress will try to pass a new spending bill that would avoid another government shutdown and a handful of other data releases should shed some more light on U.S. economic growth. Meanwhile, this will be the first week in a new job for Trevor Noah, Jon Stewart’s replacement as the host of The Daily Show.
Here’s what you need to know to start the week.
1. September jobs report
The Labor Department will release its monthly look at the U.S. employment picture on Friday. The unemployment rate is expected to have held steady at 5.1%, which is a seven-year low, with the U.S. economy likely adding 203,000 jobs in September — more than the 173,000 it added in the previous month. Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen said last week the central bank believes that “the economy is no longer far away from full employment,” an important milestone as the Fed considers finally implementing it’s highly-anticipated interest rate hike.
2. Wednesday’s deadline to avoid another government shutdown
Sept. 30 marks the final day of fiscal year 2015 and members of Congress are working to pass a bill that would allow U.S. federal agencies to continue spending money, thus avoiding the second federal government shutdown in two years. There is hope that Speaker of the House John Boehner’s resignation, announced Friday, will help clear the way for a short-term funding bill that would keep the government running through the rest of the calendar year. Boehner had been working to secure enough bipartisan votes to pass such a bill, but he faced opposition from conservatives within his own Republican party who refused to pass the bill unless it defunded Planned Parenthood. That group of conservatives had also threatened to vote to force Boehner out of his Speaker position.
3. World leaders gather for U.N. General Assembly
The 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly will draw leaders from the organization’s 193 member states to New York City on Monday. Talks will center around the European refugee crisis, Syria’s civil war, the recent Iranian nuclear arms agreement, and climate change. Russia’s Vladimir Putin has requested a side meeting with President Barack Obama to discuss the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, which would mark the leaders’ first in-person meeting in over a year. On Friday, Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a new slate of policies to combat climate change, including a cap-and-trade program in China.
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4. Data on consumer spending, manufacturing and vehicle sales
In addition to Friday’s jobs report, this week brings a handful of other economic data releases with the potential to affect markets. On Monday, the Commerce Department will release U.S. consumer spending data for August, which is expected to show a 0.4% bump in spending during that month after a gain of 0.3% in the previous month. And, on Thursday, new factory activity data is expected to show that the manufacturing sector grew at a slow pace in September, while U.S. automakers are expected to report a 12% increase in monthly sales year-over-year.
5. The (new) Daily Show
South African comedian Trevor Noah kicks off his stint as the new host of The Daily Show on Monday night on Viacom’s (VIA) Comedy Central. Noah, who takes over for former host Jon Stewart after previously appearing on the show as a correspondent, will be the program’s first new host since Stewart took over the role in 1999 (though, John Oliver briefly stepped into the role two years ago during a Stewart hiatus before getting his own show on HBO (TWX)). Stewart’s final show earlier this year paved the way for the latest of many recent transitions among late-night television personalities. Noah is entering a competitive late-night TV landscape, where several cable network options fight for ratings, and advertising dollars, with an equally crowded field of late-night talk shows on the major networks, including other recently installed hosts Stephen Colbert, on CBS (CBS), as well as NBC’s (CMCSA) Jimmy Fallon and ABC’s (DIS) Jimmy Kimmel.
— Reuters contributed to this post.
