Weekly Market Recap
Australia
25/05/2020
Week in review
- Retail sales fall 17.9% m/m
- European composite PMI up to 30.5
- U.S. composite PMI rises to 36.5
Week ahead
- Australia capital expenditure
- U.S. consumer confidence
- German IFO index
Thought of the week
Economic data released last week continues to suggest that April was the low in economic activity. The early release of the May PMIs for Europe, Japan and the U.S all showed an improvement on their record lows in April. It isn’t all good news, however, as the rebound in these business surveys wasn’t that strong. Sitting well below the breakeven of 50 means these economies are still contracting, and the second quarter GDP reports are likely to be far worse than for the first quarter. Markets barely moved after the release as the focus is on the reopening of many economies and the abating virus risk. Unfortunately this risk is being replaced by the all too familiar geopolitical risk and the question of whether trade wars will once again dominate investors’ view of markets.
Eurozone Purchasing Managers’ Indices
Index, three month moving average of composite index