Archive - Sep 2, 2013

After China's weekend PMI release, Monday saw the full data dump of final Manufacturing PMIs from Europe, which on the surface was as good as it could get: with a composite PMI print of 51.4, compared to expectations and a flash reading of 51.3, this was the highest number in 26 months. Summarizing the European final August PMI data: manufacturers feel broadly better about themselves: in fact the best in 26 months, with new orders largely fueled by export demand. Yet exports to where one wonders, considering net trade surplus data has been stronger than expected for virtually all nations in the past month: after all in a zero trade sum world someone has to be substantially increasing their imports? But more importantly, actual jobs - the real growth dynamo for the European economy - continue to deteriorate, accelerating their downward pace having declined for 19 months in a row.