The flash PMIs will be in focus.......>

EUROPEAN DATA: The flash PMIs will be in focus with releases from France,

Germany, the Eurozone and the UK with all of today's prints expected higher.

- Remember that the survey is conducted by asking purchasing managers whether

variables have increased, decreased or stayed the same since the previous month.

Lockdowns were in full swing in April and are beginning to be toned down

somewhat in May so it would be expected that more purchasing managers reported

better conditions in May vs April than in April vs March (when lockdowns were

first starting). The important thing to note is that the PMIs do not pick up

magnitudes of changes. A purchasing manager seeing a little improvement will

give the same manager as a purchasing manager seeing a big improvement.

- Just a reminder of the components for the Markit PMIs (from Markit website):

Manufacturing: Output, new orders, new export orders, backlogs of work, output

prices, input prices, suppliers' delivery times, stocks of finished goods,

quantity of purchases, stocks of purchases, employment, future output.

Services: Business activity, new business, new export business, outstanding

business, prices charged, input prices, employment, future activity.