Trump-Xi Summit, AI, and Earnings Drive Market Focus

By EC Assets · Published 22 September 2026

Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping will meet Thursday to discuss a range of economic and geopolitical topics. This summit takes place during the last full week of September. Wall Street has many events to keep investors busy, even with a relatively quiet U.S. economic calendar. The focus is shifting from economic data to geopolitics, interest rates, and corporate events. AI and corporate earnings are driving markets. Chinese leader Xi Jinping is making a state visit. Conferences from Meta and Qualcomm are also scheduled. Federal Reserve speeches are expected throughout the week. Advanced Micro Devices briefly crossed a $1 trillion market capitalization on Monday. This surge in chip stocks followed three simultaneous catalysts. These catalysts included an AMD price hike, an Intel packaging deal, and Meta's MUSE AI. Nvidia's bounce also occurred this week. The Trump-Xi summit, Meta AI updates, and Costco earnings are in focus. U.S. PMI data and key Federal Reserve speeches are also expected. Data on manufacturing, services, and new homes will be released. Earnings reports are anticipated from KB Home, Costco, AutoZone, and General Mills. Trump is scheduled to speak at the UN. Alibaba is introducing a new AI chip. HSBC designed a machine-learning model to predict the direction of the 10-year Treasury. This article is intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice.