Business

Following mixed US manufacturing survey data earlier in the week (and disapopinting French/German PMIs), US Services were even more mixed with PMI printing at 6-month highs (new business expanding at its fastest in two years), and ISM collapsing to 11-month lows.

Despite the ongoing collapse in 'hard' economic data (against even weaker expectations), surveys of US Services employers by PMI are ebulient, but it seems the people that ISM are talking to are dysphoric...

King Dollar over the past 30-weeks has experienced a sizable decline, that hasn’t a ton of times over the past 25-years, see below-

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The large decline in King Dollar has taken it down to what could be an important price point and it has impacted sentiment a good deal as well.

Two days ago, we were the first to point out that in a striking case of data revisionism, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, in an attempt to retroactively boost GDP, revised historical personal incomes lower, while adjusting its estimates of personal spending much higher, resulting in a sharp decline in personal savings, which as a result, was slashed from 5.5% according to the pre-revised data, to just 3.8%, in one excel calculation wiping out 30% of America's "savings", and cutting them by a quarter trillion dollars in the process, from $791 billion to $546 billion, a level last seen just

Update: shortly after he took credit for the record stock market and business enthusiasm, Trump - accurately - blamed Congress for the current "very dangerous" relationship with Russia, when he tweeted that"Our relationship with Russia is at an all-time & very dangerous low. You can thank Congress, the same people that can't even give us HCare!"

Our relationship with Russia is at an all-time & very dangerous low. You can thank Congress, the same people that can't even give us HCare!

The whispers about a potential rate hike by the recently hawkish BOE ended up being wrong, when moments ago the Bank of England announced that in a 6-2 decision it kept rates unchanged at 0.25%, largely as expected. Saunders and McCafferty dissented in favor of an immediate interest-rate increase, with Haldane refusing to join the dissenters.

In separate unanimous decisions, the central bank also kept its bond purchase programs unchanged at GBP10BN and GBP435BN for corporate and government bonds respectively.