Business activity falls, but not enough to slow the Fed

Wednesday 24th August 2022View our disclaimer and terms of use: nab.co/3shJyypView our NAB Financial Services Guide: nab.co/3rvJtI9It’s that time of the month when PMI reads give us a global snapshot of how everyone is doling relative to each other. NAB’s Ray Attrill says the US provided the biggest surprise with a sharp fall in the services number, moving further into contraction territory, with a read of 44.1 – a 27 month low. That’s somewhat worse than services numbers in Europe, and well below the UK, which continues to surprise, with a Services PMI read of 52.5 (actually growing). The bad news from the US was compounded by a fall in the Richmond Fed manufacturing index (also moving into contraction) and a further slowdown in new home prices. But Europe’s future continues to be dominated with higher fuel costs, which show no signs of settling down. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.