The first day of the new month opens up on a busy note, with lots of PMI reports expected today.
First of all, Australia published the Markit Manufacturing PMI for September, which was 56.8, pleasing investors.
Next, Japan delivered its Tankan indices for the third quarter of 2021. The all-industry capex, manufacturing, and non-manufacturing indices were all better than expected. However, the manufacturing outlook report narrowly missed the forecast.
In addition, Japan also published its unemployment rate for August today, which was better than anticipated at 2.8%. Also, consumer confidence in September was slightly stronger than the previous month.
In Europe, Germany;s Markit manufacturing PMI for September was just a bit below the forecast at 58.4, though this still shows growth in the sector. August’s retail sales from Germany were quite disappointing, however, at 0.4% against a forecast of 1.9%.
Furthermore, the manufacturing PMI from Spain disappointed investors as well, while Italy’s was higher than expected, though lower than the previous month.
Unsurprisingly, the eurozone-wide manufacturing PMI also missed the target, coming in at 58.6 in September. The European Union also published its flash inflation data for September, which met the forecasts, and in the case of the YoY inflation, exceeded them.
In the United Kingdom the Markit manufacturing PMI was better than expected.
Later today there will also be a big data dump from the United States. Investors are really looking forward to the PCE and core PCE reports for August. Inflation remains one of the two most important metrics for the health of the US economy, and an important consideration in any estimates about monetary policy tightening by the Federal Reserve.
In line with the trend, the US will also publish the Markit and ISM manufacturing PMIs for September today.
The final version of the Michigan consumer sentiment survey for September will also be published today.
In other news, China is joining the energy crisis. In recent weeks there has been a spike in demand in the European Union and the United Kingdom, which caused natural gas prices to skyrocket. Now the Chinese government ordered businesses to keep running, even though some of them had been trying to conserve power. Thus, a spike in demand from China is now also incoming.
US stock indices will trade lower today due to pessimism about the global economy with slowdowns all-around and the added pressure of the energy crisis.
