Wall Street before the open: Accenture and manufacturing in focus

In one minute

Accenture's October 1 release reported revenue of 18.68 billion US dollars for the quarter ended August 31, up 6 percent from a year earlier. For the next fiscal year, the company expects revenue growth of 3–6 percent in local currency.

For Hungarian investors, both corporate demand and the forint value of US dollar assets matter. The new outlook is a business expectation: subsequent orders and financial reports will show whether it is delivered.

Demand and currency risk

The report provides a fresh company-level signal about demand for IT services. Consulting and outsourced services operate with different contract cycles, so one company's results do not imply identical performance across technology shares. Local-currency growth in the release removes the currency-translation effect; revenue reported in US dollars is also affected by that effect.

The ECB reference rates for September 30 were EUR/HUF 366.20 and EUR/USD 1.1355. Dividing the former by the latter gives our calculated reference of 322.50 forints per US dollar. This is a previous-day reference, not the bid or offer at publication.

Measured in forints, a US equity investment's return is affected by the US dollar as well as the share price. A weaker US dollar can reduce a share's gain in its original currency when translated into forints, while a stronger US dollar can increase its forint value. Currency-conversion fees and the bid–offer spread add costs that differ between providers.

The US Department of Labor's October 1 release put seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims at 197,000 for the week ended September 26. This was 1,000 below the previous week's revised 198,000. Weekly benefit applications measure a different indicator from the monthly employment report.

What follows the open?

The official ISM calendar schedules the manufacturing survey release for October 1 at 10:00 New York time. The BLS calendar lists the September employment report for October 2 at 8:30. We do not publish results or consensus estimates for these releases in advance.

Our September 30 market close review and JOLTS background support comparison. Without licensed current index-futures, premarket equity or bond-yield data, we do not quantify the opening direction, individual share moves or current yields. The NYSE regular opening auction is scheduled for 9:30; data from earlier trading sessions must be treated separately.