📆 Thursday, August 31
â–º Asian markets remained mixed. Japan equities saw a boost of over 1.2%. Recent Japanese data showed July's industrial production was down -2.0% m/m, underperforming the -1.4% forecast. However, retail sales showed strength at +6.8% y/y against the +5.4% forecast. Chinese stocks on the other hand saw a downward correction, despite better-than-expected PMI data. China's August Manufacturing PMI of 49.7 surpassed the forecast of 49.2 but remained in contraction territory (below 50).
â–º US markets closed yesterday in the green with the Nasdaq (+0.54%) , S&P 500 (+0.39%), Dow Jones (+0.11%), seeing gains. Salesforce released it's earnings after trading hours, showcasing a Q2 Non-GAAP EPS of $2.12, accompanying a revenue upswing to $8.6B (+11.4% Y/Y). Market reception was positive with a +5.75% spike in shares. US equity futures remain unchanged as investors await PCE data, the Fed's preferred inflation reading and Jobs data (12:30 UTC+0).
â–º Today Europe will be seeing vital unemployment inflation data. France reported their Q2 YoY GDP growth at 1%. While inflation trends were worrisome, escalating to 4.8% in August up from 4.6% in July (y-o-y). In Germany, economic stress-points were evident. Retail sales for July fell by 2.2% YoY. Unemployment rate increased to 5.7% in August from 5.6% in the previous month, with an uptick in the number of unemployed individuals. Investors await the Eurozone inflation and job data (09:00 UTC+0) for more cues on it's economic health. European equities remain unchanged ahead of these data releases. Despite hot Eurozone inflation, the EUR has not been able to strengthen – partially due to weak economic data.
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