Major economies have showed us yesterday, that their service sectors are facing bigger problems ahead, if the numbers continue to slide. Some individual EU states, like the UK and Sweden, are already in contraction territory, which may escalate further. US gets a green light to impose tariffs on some EU goods. US employment numbers take centre stage today.
The Global Service Sector Is Sliding
Yesterday, the economic calendar was filled with service PMI numbers, coming out from various major economies. Countries like Australia, Sweden, Spain, France, Germany and the UK showed figures not only below the previous readings, but also below their forecasts. The eurozone as whole also did not make situation better, as the number came out, at 51.6, which was slightly below expectation at 52.0 and well below the previous figure, at 53.5. Certainly, that is still not the contraction territory, but the European equities did feel the heat during their trading sessions. But the European bourses closed mixed. After the release of the US Services PMI number and the US ISM Non-manufacturing PMI figure (which were released before the European closing bells), initially, the equity markets took another dive, but were quick to recover after that. The services figure was the same as expected, at 50.9, but the ISM non-manufacturing PMI was below forecast, at 52.6 against 55.0, this has raised the...
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