Today the U.S. Manufacturing ISM report was published; according to the recent report, the U.S. Manufacturing PMI index edged up to 49.8% during July 2012. The U.S. Manufacturing PMI is an index that estimates the economic progress of the U.S. manufacturing sector; this means the manufacturing sector contracted for the second consecutive month after it had expanded for 36th consecutive months since July 2009; the index rose from 49.7% in M June ay to 49.8% in July i.e. a 0.1 percent point gain. This means that the U.S. manufacturing sector is still contracting in July but at a slightly slower pace than in June.
Among the factors that were examined in this survey: one of the sharpest contractions was in backlogs of orders: from 44.5% to 43% – a decrease of 1.5 percent point; production on the other hand rose by 0.3 percent points to 51.3; among the sectors that grew but at a slower pace were employment and imports.
According to Roache et. al (2008) it was assessed that the PMI Manufacturing ISM report tends to be negatively linked with the daily changes of gold and silver prices without controlling to the U.S dollar effect. Furthermore, the PMI news suppose to have a positive lagged effect on natural gas prices, i.e. all things being equal including the U.S dollar, as the PMI Manufacturing ISM index tends to rise, natural gas prices also increase. Since the PMI didn’t change much, this news might have little effect on these commodities prices.
Current gold price, (September 2012 delivery) is traded at $ 1,601.8 per t oz. a $12.8 decrease or 0.79%, as of 15:55*.
Current Nymex crude oil price, (September 2012 delivery) is traded up by 0.79%, at $88.76 per barrel as of 15:55*.
Euros to USD is currently traded at 1.2301 as of 15:56*.
(* GMT)
For more on this subject: