Manufacturing PMI day is here

February ended on a bearish note with a failed bullish correction and a further slide south in the stock market. The European session began with optimism as indices climbed higher, but the American session dashed the buyers’ hopes. Yesterday, the SP500 declined by 0.3%, Nasdaq lost 0.1%, and Dow Jones dropped 0.7%, setting new yearly lows below the 32600 point mark.

Yesterday’s calendar had some interesting data. The day started off well, with better than expected retail sales data from Japan and Australia. However, the second half of the day brought disappointment with the decline in GDP in Canada (-0.1%) and lower than expected CB Consumer Confidence from the US (102.9 vs 108.5 expected). Today’s calendar will be busy, with Manufacturing PMI being the main data presented by almost all leading economies in the world. Japan and China started first. The number from Japan was in line with expectations, but the data from China positively surprised.

We also had the CPI number from Australia, which was much below expectations (7.4% vs 8.1% expected). In general, this is negative information for the Australian Dollar, and it initially weakened. However, AUD reversed and erased the initial drop.

In the currency market, March started with a weakness of the American Dollar, which on the EURUSD is a continuation of a buy signal mentioned yesterday. A weaker dollar helps commodities climb higher. Gold reached a new mid-term low yesterday, but reversed to the upside in the second half of the day, creating an interesting buying opportunity. If today’s candle is bullish, we will have a third consecutive positive day on this precious metal. Oil also climbed higher, although momentum and volatility were lacking. The Crude Oil Inventories data, which will be presented later today, may add some spice to oil trading.

Source: https://www.axiory.com/analytics/market-news/manufacturing-pmi-day-is-here