What a huge data dump in the past half hour or so:
- Australia Q1 Capex, 'headline' is 0.3% (vs. expected +0.5%)
- Australia - April retail sales: 1.0% m/m (expected +0.3%)
- China Caixin manufacturing PMI: 49.6 (expected 50.1)
And mixed in there too was John Williams of the San Fran Federal Reserve ... part of what he said was:
- three rate increases for this year his base line view, four hikes possible if US economy strengthens
Four rate hikes this year! ... Rubbish (IMO) ... but there you go!
Anyway, the capex data was OK, and the retail sales was a solid beat indeed
BUT
China PMI is very poor - this is the private survey
I was surprised by the official China PMIs yesterday, and a wee bit suspicious too ... and sure enough the resilience in those two has not been confirmed by the Caixin / Markit data just a few minutes ago.
AUD/USD .... sliding away:
And, by the way ... next week we get Q1 GDP from Australia. I wonder if the data we are getting through on these partial indicators (construction work, capex) is going to be enough to keep GDP in the positive. It'll be a close run thing.
