The US stock market opened higher yesterday as optimism around the Italian budget row increased and filtered through. This helped drive the Dow Jones industrial average to its highest mark ever. It is fascinating to think how everything is interlinked; that Italy’s government reaching a compromise with the EU can have such an effect on America’s stock market.
The ISM non-manufacturing PMI impressed by rising to 61.6 in September from 58.5 the previous month, beating expectations of 58. The reading pointed to a record growth in the services sector. We also saw composite and services PMI come in at 53.9 and 53.5 respectively, against expectations of 53.4 and 52.9. Employment changes figures were healthy too, as private businesses hired 230,000 workers in September, compared with an upwardly revised 168,000 the month before. The markets had been expecting a figure of 185,000.
It is a relatively quiet day across the UK, EU and America today, but we will see factory orders in August, as well as initial jobless claims up to 29 September. The job market in the US has been performing excellently for some time now, so attention will be on the reading to see if it can get even better.
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