Spreadex Market Update

US manufacturing PMIs beat expectations (but still look shoddy), causes global gains to continue across the board




Not that the US manufacturing situation was much better than what was seen in Europe earlier in the day; the final Markit figure for February came in at 51.2, a smidge higher than the 51.0 forecast (but still lower than January), whilst the ISM number rose to 49.5 from the 48.2 seen last month. So, nothing particularly heartening but nevertheless enough for US investors to match their European brethren after the bell, sending the Dow Jones 130 points higher (and around 200 points away from last week’s highs) as the American session got underway. It will be interesting to see if Friday’s non-farm figures can provoke a similar response, especially given the proximity of March’s Fed meeting; investors might not be so kind if the data causes Yellen and co to mull over another rate hike.

With the US manufacturing sector avoiding any ugly surprises the FTSE held onto the same kind of growth it saw earlier in the day, its 40 point rise leaving it nearing a 2 month peak. This despite both Brent Crude ticking back towards $36 per barrel AND Barclays matching banking bro RBS’ plunge last week with its own 9.5% fall.

As it has all day the Eurozone led the global gains, the DAX jumping by around 200 points with the CAC posting its own respectable 1.2% surge. Investors are assumedly hopeful that Mario Draghi is in enough of a bind given the combination of the consistently awful region-wide data and the ECB President’s previous promises to ‘do whatever it takes’ that he will be forced to inject some fresh stimulus next week.


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