UK Manufacturing comes out a bit above expectations at 53.5 points, the highest in 4 months. This sector has been the weakest in the recent economic cycle. The immediate reaction is muted, but the pound already rose towards the publication.
Markit’s purchasing managers’ index for the manufacturing sector for November was expected to remain close to October’s 53.2 points level.
In other data: net lending to individuals disappointed with 2.6 billion instead of 2.8 billion expected. M4 Money Supply remains on the slide with -0.1%, contrary to a rise of 0.2% predicted. Mortgage Approvals slid from 61K to 59K, as expected.
GBP/USD was moving up towards the publication, trading at 1.5680, seemingly anticipating the good number.
This is the first of three PMIs. Tomorrow we have the construction PMI and on Wednesday the services PMI, which is the most important one, addressing the largest sector.
For more, see the GBPUSD forecast. All in in all, the pound is attempting to recover from the slide. Here is how it looks on the chart:
