Markit introduced a manufacturing purchasing managers’ index for the US. This is the first time the company publishes data for the world’s No. 1 economy. The initial figure for May stands at 53.9 points. Final data will be released in the future.
This figure is published before the end of the month and before the ISM figures which are released on the first days of the following month, and usually serve as indicators for the Non-Farm Payrolls.
Markit also released a figure for April: 56. So, the initial figure for May points to a slowdown in manufacturing growth. This is the slowest in 3 months.
A score of 50 points is the balance between growth and contraction. It’s important to note that the US economy leans heavily towards the services sector rather than the manufacturing one.
Markit’s initial PMI data for the euro-zone was quite disappointing – Germany’s manufacturing sector is slowing down quite fast, and this indicates a clear contraction in Q2.
What happens now is that the publication was a trigger for a leap in EUR/USD. The culprit seems to be a move in EUR/CHF, which leaped from its sleep just above the 1.20 floor and reached 1.2050 within seconds. It could be some move by the SNB. The pair is now retreating, back to 1.2020.
