Thursday’s European flash PMIs were ugly as all hell. Yet investors react with relative calm, aided by a continued rebound from Brent Crude.
Like the Eurozone, the UK’s PMIs were far worse than forecast – and those forecasts were already dire. The flash manufacturing reading fell from 47.8 to 32.9 month-on-month, sinking far below the 42.0 estimated by analysts. Even worse was the services figure, which hit an all-time low of just 12.3, less than half of the 28.5 expected and almost a third of the 34.5 seen in March.
Heavy losses for FTSE and pound alike would have been excusable. Instead the UK index was effectively flat at 5770, while sterling actually added 0.2%n against the dollar and 0.6% against the euro.
Elsewhere the DAX was unmoved just above 10400, with the French CAC pushing half a percent higher as it retook 4400.
As for the Dow Jones, it is currently playing its cards close to its chest, the futures pointing to a 0.1% decline. What the index ends up doing may be down to the pre-open jobless claims reading. Then again, that figure, however shocking, has failed to really panic the index.
Nevertheless, analysts are expecting a further 4.35 million unemployment claims, which would put the 5-week figure north of a staggering 26 million.
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