In the hazy and mixed world of 'soft' survey data, October's prints have been 'different'. Manufacturing PMI surged while ISM Manufacturing dropped and now Services PMI has flatlined but ISM Services surged to its highest since Aug 2005.
As good as it gets?
Take your pick...
Under the hood we see that despite the rise in the headline, new orders dropped as did prices and backlogs.
ISM Respondents noted hurricane impacts...
Authored by Kevin Muir via The Macro Tourist blog,
The other day I stumbled upon this great tweet from Holger Zschaepitz, the senior editor of the financial desk of the German newspaper, Die Welt.
In what was otherwise a mediocre jobs report, in which the establishment survey reported that a lower than expected 261K jobs were added to the post-Hurricane economy, the biggest surprise was not in the Establishment survey, but the household, where the unemployment rate tumbled once more, sliding to a new cycle low of 4.1%, for all the wrong reasons, because a quick look at the participation rate metrics showed that in October there was a sharp decline, with the labor force part. rate sliding from 63.1% to 62.7%, back to 4 decade lows...
One day after the dollar slumped sharply on initial disappointment with the GOP tax plan, the greenback has rebounded ahead of a nonfarm payrolls report that is expected to show the US economy gained over 300,000 jobs in the post-hurricane rebound, and as investors reassessed the latest news on U.S. tax-cut plans. Stocks in Europe and Asia advanced, US equity futures were as usual in the green, while oil headed for an eight-month high on signs OPEC will agree to extend supply cuts.
Iran has suggested isolating the US by ditching the dollar during a meeting yesterday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Tehran.
Remonstrating against US threats to impose new sanctions and cancel the nuclear agreement, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei branded the US an enemy and urged Moscow to completely sever ties with the US currency: