Summary:

  • ISM non-manufacturing PMI 55.7 vs 58.6
  • Kudlow: “China shouldn’t underestimate Trump on trade”
  • US stocks remains near their highs

The final data release of the week has shown another lower than expected reading for the US with the ISM non-manufacturing PMI missing forecasts. A print of 55.7 was well below the 58.6 consensus forecast and marks a substantial decline from the 59.1 seen last time out. The reading is the lowest since August last year and while it is still a long way above the 50 level, it is clearly a disappointment. 

 link do file download link

 This week’s ISM releases have been disappointing with both the manufacturing and non-manufacturing showing pretty sizable drops. Source: XTB Macrobond

Perhaps of greater concern is that today’s release supports the manufacturing equivalent that we saw on Wednesday in missing forecasts. The ISM manufacturing wasn’t as sharp a decline, but still a chart of their past prints does appear indicate that these metrics may be topping out. 

link do file download link

 The US100 is back around the 61.8% fib after making a strong push to the upside once the 38.2% fib at 7304 was broken with conviction yesterday. Source: xStation

Yesterday marked a pretty strong recovery in US stocks, with the tech heavy US100 leading the move higher. Apple added to its recent gains during Thursday’s session, making a new all time high and in reaching 207 the stock became the first ever to reach the $1T market cap level. The US500 and US100 are both near their highest levels of the week and bulls will be hoping that they can get another push higher going into the weekend.