- PMI confirms Chinese recovery.
- Risk appetite up in Asia this morning. EUR/USD continues higher.
- US stock markets finish best January since 1997.
- Focus today on ISM and non-farm payrolls.
China’s manufacturing PMIs in January were mixed but on balance still suggest growth is accelerating moderately
and GDP growth could be close to 9% q/q AR in Q1. The NBS manufacturing PMI in January declined slightly to 50.4 but the weakness was primarily driven by weaker production and inventory cuts, while new orders continued to improve slightly. The HSBC manufacturing PMI in its final estimate was revised markedly higher and now shows an improvement to 52.3 from 51.5 in January. The details in the HSBC PMI remain very strong with new orders and export orders improving and finished goods orders declining slightly, suggesting continued improvements in the coming months. We expect the manufacturing PMIs to peak around 53 in late Q2. See Flash Comment - China: Mixed PMIs still suggest that growth is picking up, 1 February 2013.
US stock markets lost a little ground yesterday but the futures market has regained the losses in Asian time in a fairly quiet news flow. Stocks had a very strong start to the year with the best January performance for the S&P500 since 1997 – see article. It is up 5.0% so far this year.
Spain’s prime minister Mariano Rajoy has been drawn into a corruption scandal after being accused of receiving payments from donations from construction companies.
US bond yields have traded in tandem with equity markets and are a bit higher overnight with the 10-year going above 2% again this morning.
EUR/USD continues its march higher going above 1.36, the highest level in more than a year. USD/JPY also keep setting new cycle highs breaking through 92 this morning. EUR/SEK has also increased in Asian time going above 8.645.
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