The UK delivered slightly better than expected PMI data yesterday, which has helped investor optimism in the Pound (more on this later). The Euro-Zone's reading was worse than anticipated and is being driven by the regions biggest economy/problem child, Germany.
Manufacturing in the country still hasn't recovered since the pandemic and continues to cause problems. Services was a big miss yesterday (the weakest output since April 2021) and overall, it sees Germany back into contraction territory.
There was no movement at all on the US readings versus the last, which was no real surprise as things have stalled over the pond of late. The USD did improve though after the Nasdaq & S&P 500 suffered their worst single-day fall since 2022.
US tech stocks have sunk after poor earnings figures (led by Tesla) and concerns over AI affecting growth. This prompted an interest cut from China, who also reduced rates earlier in the week before the news. Do they know something we don't?
Finally, net-long positions in GBP increased for the third consecutive week. Long positions refer to the contracts taken out by investors and traders that would offer a positive return, if the Pound rises further from its current position. It is a key insight into sentiment and potential future direction. The number is at a record high, which means in theory, GBP could be headed higher..
| On this day - |
In 306, Constantine I is proclaimed Roman Emperor by his troops In 1943, Benito Mussolini is dismissed as Italian Prime Minister and arrested In 1944, Operation Spring sees one of Canada's bloodiest days in WWII with 18,000 casualties and 5,000 killed In 1997, Scientists announce the first human stem cells to be cultured in a laboratory |
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