Summary for the 3rd of April 2019


China’s Caixin General Services PMI was 54.4 in March, rose from 51.1 in February. The increase was stronger than the market had expected, though the sub-index for employment fell to the lowest level in six months. Growth in operating costs were higher than price charged by services firms.

Looking at the data together with the manufacturing PMI released on Monday, the total PMI from China has increased from February to the highest level since June 2018. Japan’s Nikkei service PMI declined by 0.3 points to 52.

The Vice Premier of China, Liu He, is meeting with the US Secretary of The Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, and the US Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer today. The trade deal is rumored to be already done, except for two major issues (paywall): The terms of enforcement mechanism and the removal of the already imposed tariffs on Chinese goods by the US.

The British Prime Minister, Theresa May, and the leader of the Labour and the leader of the opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, are having a constructive discussion for a Brexit solution. May wants the opposition leader to support the already negotiated Brexit deal between her and the EU, though she is open to include Labour’s own proposals and guidelines on how the UK will be cooperating with the EU in the long run, like accepting a customs union with the EU. This can be interpreted as strange, since the discussion hasn’t taken place earlier. Also, if this discussion had taken place too early, May could risk receiving massive critic of not trying more options before ending up complying to the Labour.

Indices for 3rd of April.  
Dow: -0.3% (2nd of April)
S&P 500: Unchanged (2nd of April)
Nasdaq: +0.3% (2nd of April)
Nikkei: +0.9% (3rd of April)
Chinese indices: +0.9% (3rd of April)
STOXX Europe 600 Index: +1.01% (3rd of April)

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