Loads of data landing from around the world today, but in the end telling us little new. In particular, Japan's 3Q Tankan was a damp squib.
In the US, the ISM manufacturing index reported a surge in prices paid, with the index rising to the highest since October 2018. This is the supply shock of the pandemic kicking in again as demand beings to recover. That shows up in the comments accompanying the survey: eg, a computer/electronics guy saying 'still struggling with long lead times for components coming from China'; Or the transport equipt sector comment: 'Business is booming and the supply chain has been caught off guard. . . . the resin industry, along with plastics, is driving cost increases and scarce availability'.
And then there's Markit's manufacturing PMIs: The average for those released today and yesterday rose 0.6pts to 52.1, suggesting a steady mild improvement in conditions, though the standard deviation between countries rose a little to 3.1pts from 2.2pts in August. Within than, Europe's PMIs averaged 53.1, up 1.1pt from August, with the SD unchanged at 2.3pts. Asia, however, inched up only 0.3pts to 50.9 - barely back in perceptible growth, although here there is a wide variation, witha SD of 4pts (up from 2.2 in August).
