We learned in the past few hours that both the Chinese and European manufacturing sectors performed better than initially expected by the analysts polled by Bloomberg. In China, the Manufacturing PMI (March) came in at 50.1, beating forecasts and the reading from the previous month. The same pleasant surprise occurred in Europe this morning, where the Markit PMI came in at 52.2, above last month’s reading of 51.9 and beating forecasts as well. The currencies of the world’s second and third biggest economies are therefore giving encouraging signs of growth. Both the yuan and the euro took advantage of the situation to gain back some ground lost to the greenback.
This morning, it will be North America’s turn to release its manufacturing sector indicators. At 9:30 a.m. we will have the Canadian one (March), while the U.S. one will be released at 9:45 a.m. Markets are not anticipating any major changes, forecasting that the U.S. PMI will remain stable at 55.3. Have a good day!
