The US manufacturing is doing ok: the ISM manufacturing PMI surprises to the upside with 57.1 points. The ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI for July was expected to edge up from 55.3 to 56.1 points. This figure usually serves as a hint towards the NFP, but this time it is published after the fact, so the employment component matters less than usual. Nevertheless, employment jumped to 58.2 points, the highest in over 3 years.
The US dollar was somewhat weaker after the miss in the NFP. The dollar is very marginally stronger.
More data: new orders are up to steaming hot levels: 63.4 points from 58.9 beforehand. Prices are at 59.5, also up. All in all, this is the highest level in over 3 years.
Construction spending was expected to rise by 0.4% in June after +0.1% last month. This is released at the same time. The actual number is a crash of 1.8%. However, this is countered by a strong revision to the previous month: 0.8% in May.
Earlier, Markit’s final manufacturing PMI for July saw a downwards revision from 56.3 to 55.8 points. Revised consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan saw an upwards revision from 81.3 to 81.8 points, slightly better than expected. Earlier in the week, CB consumer confidence jumped to 90.9 points.
Needless to say, the Non-Farm Payrolls was the big event of the day, and it fell short. The US gained 209K jobs in July and the unemployment rate ticked up to 6.2%. Average hourly earnings remained unchanged at 2% year over year.
This PMI is the last major event for a very busy week, that was generally dollar positive: GDP jumped by 4% (annualized) in Q2. The NFP took away of the dollar rally.
