This week we look at China PMI, US house prices, US consumer confidence, French GDP results, and Japan’s unemployment and inflation situation.
1. China PMI
China recorded slightly lower PMI figures for December with the HSBC index falling to 54.4 from 55.3 and the CFLP index falling to 53.9 from 55.2. Clearly there are a few issues bubbling away i.e. a spike in inflation… and more importantly – how the authorities deal with it. That alone will be one of the biggest wild-cards for 2011.
2. US Housing
The US housing market saw further weakness with the October reading of the Case-Shiller index down both on a monthly and annual basis. There’s not much else to say on this one, house prices ran ahead of themselves and the market needs to correct – further government measures may put a temporary floor under the market, but the question is how long would that be necessary before the fundamentals finally came around? Another couple of years of flat house prices wouldn’t be a surprise. (more)
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