Global Economy Down – Gold Up

The Chinese manufacturing sector figures were released on Wednesday. The data shows that the activity contracted once again, marking the 7^th regression month in a row. It is no use to say that expectations are also going to be missed for September according to the latest readings of the Chinese factories reports. China’s Manufacturing PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) Caixin-Markit skipped down to 47.0, with a 47.3 reading in August. For a more accurate image of China’s economical struggle: markets were expecting a 47.6 rise for the PMI in September.

In the Eurozone, the preliminary Markit data sets a slower pace in the private sector growth, after a staggering 51-month record in August. Detailing, services kept their ground but the manufacturing sector slows down its growth rate at a 4-month low. Eurozone’s Markit PMI went up from August’s 54.3 to 53.9 this month, but the manufacturing PMI retracted to the 52.00 threshold from August’s 52.3 while services went down from 54.4 to 54.00.

Canada’s numbers put retail sales up with 0.5%, as widely expected. August’s figure was revised lower from +0.6% to +0.4%. There was no change in the retail sales excluding automotive sale versus August’s +0.5% (revised from +0.8%). Overall, the readings are slightly disappointing, on top of August’s downward revisions and the drop in retail sales.

Thursday came with good news for Germany as latest data shows that business sentiment has improved this month, escaping the sell-off influence of the Chinese and international stock-markets. Careful though because this set of data does not take into account the latest scam Volkswagen pulled off with the carbon emissions. The Ifo’s BCI (Institute for Economic Research’s Business Climate Index) went up to 108.5 in September, exceeding the 108.4 booked in August. Also, 114 points (under August’s 114.8 and missing estimates of 114.7) were reached by the Current Assessments sub-survey. This sub-survey indicates the current conditions of the Eurozone’s number one economy.

On the other side of the Atlantic, US’s corporate spending went down not as fast as expected in August according to the official reports from yesterday. Durable goods orders shrank with 2% in August, but an expected value of 2.2% decline. The regression matched the Chinese’s 7-month downward strike for the annualized durable goods orders. Capital core goods orders (the benchmark for business investments) also contracted with 0.2%, similarly to shipments of core capital goods (the benchmark for quarterly economic growth).

In the present economic turmoil Gold flourished. Spot rose more than 2%/Oz, converging up over the 100-days SMA and hitting a monthly high of $1,154.00/Oz.