8/1/2012
By David Urani, Research Analyst

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Aside from the ISM on Wednesday we got Markit's global manufacturing figures for July and boy, does it continue to look ugly. Europe remains a disaster, with the stronger economies like the UK, France and Germany seeing declines further into the red zone. There were slight gains in Spain and Greece, but let's be honest those are so deep in the red already that the "improvement" just means that they are falling a little lest quickly than last month; they continue to underperform on the overall scale.

For good measure Markit, like the ISM, also shows a decline in the US, to a reading of 51.4 from 52.5. Note that this result assumes the USA is in a slight position of growth (above 50) whereas the ISM puts us slightly negative. And a similar picture shows up in China, where Markit's reading puts it at 49.3 (up from 48.2) whereas China's official index clocked in at 50.1 (down from 50.2). So China and the US both seem to be straddling the growth/contraction threshold, and the longer Europe stays like this the more you have to wonder how long they can hold on.

David Urani
Wall Street Strategies