As investors await Theresa May’s Brexit speech in Florence the euro got a huge boost from the latest Eurozone PMIs.
It looks like September is going to be a very strong month for the eurozone – every single French, German and region-wide manufacturing and services reading not only beat, but utterly smashed, expectations. The highlight was a 6 and a half year high German manufacturing PMI of 60.6, leading the eurozone-wide figure from 57.4 to 58.2 month-on-month.
The euro was understandably ecstatic, and with the pound and dollar already softened up by Brexit and North Korea jitters respectively the currency could take more than half a percent off both. The news was good enough that even with the euro’s rise the DAX and CAC got in on the action; the German index rose back above 12600 to sit at a 2 month high, while its French counterpart nudged ever closer to 5300 with a 0.4% increase.
The pound also shed 0.2% against the greenback, dipping below $1.355 and allowing the FTSE to rise 0.2% as investors fret over May’s mid-afternoon address. How that speech is received – by both the Tories and the EU – could not only set the tone for the rest of the day, but whether or not sterling can continue its super September surge next week.
As for the US, the Dow Jones is set to start the session flat just above 22350 having failed to hit a new record high on Thursday, ending a 9 day streak. There is a pair of PMIs on the cards this afternoon to potentially spark another set of gains, though the forecasts for the flash manufacturing and services readings aren’t particularly inspiring (the form is expected to nudge 0.1 higher to 52.9, the latter to fall 0.2 to 56.0).
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