FTSE And Pound Ignore Impressive Manufacturing PMI

Despite a massive manufacturing beat the UK markets failed to budge this Friday morning, investors instead opting to wait for the US non-farm jobs report.

As has tended to be the case in 2017, analysts manufacturing PMI estimates were way off target. Instead of falling from 55.1 to 55.0 month-on-month August’s reading surged to 56.9, the best figure since April. Yet neither the pound, which remained down by 0.1% against both the dollar and the euro, nor the FTSE, which continued to linger the wrong side of 7450, paid much attention to the figure.

The eurozone indices seemed a bit more impressed with their own manufacturing data. For the region as a whole the reading was confirmed at 57.4, returning to the same level seen in June after a dip to 56.6 in July. While, like the pound, the euro was in an anticipatory mood ahead of the US non-farm figures, the DAX and CAC were far perkier than the FTSE, rising 0.5% and 0.7% respectively.

As for the US itself, the Dow Jones is set to climb 40 points after the bell. However, with the non-farm jobs report still to come – and the dollar so far laying low – that could all change. The headline non-farm figure is expected to shrink from 209k to 180k, while wage growth is forecast to fall from 0.3% to 0.2% (the unemployment rate is likely to remain unchanged at 4.3%). None of that is particularly promising, and could cause the dollar to take a dip, freeing up the Dow to cross the 22000 mark it is so damn close to.

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