Today was really all about confidence indicators - interesting at a time when we're supposedly embarking on this alleged 'second wave' of coronavirus. And generally speaking, things got better as you went from East to West.
In Asia, S Korea's BOK survey discovered expectations on the slide - particularly for non-manufacturers, who tend to service the domestic economy. In Europe, the EU's giant monthly compilation of confidence indicators continued to show improvement despite the 2nd wave worries, but there's no acceleration in that improvement, and sentiment remains very sharply worse than in pre-Covid February.
In the US, the news is distinctly brighter, with the expectations result in the consumer confidence survey recovering no less than 20.1% mom to a level which is now 3.6% higher than the average expectations recorded in 2019. There's now positive expectations for jobs, for income and for business.
