Globally off balance and no, I am not talking about Mahmoud Ahamadineajad, though I could be. No, what I am talking about is a perceived imbalance in the strength of the US economic recovery and the perceived strength of the recovery in the rest of the world. Yesterday the global commodity markets were knocked for a loop when it was reported that the Chicago Purchasing Manager report came out a lot worse than expected and that the ADP jobs report is still showing labor weakness. What made matters worse is it came out after stronger than expected economic readings in the UK, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and good readings in Japan and China.
This raised concerns that the US is lagging the rest of the world is in a rebound phase and may force the US to be kept on the stimulus lifeline longer than some of the others. This imbalance on the last day of the quarter helped smash the dollar and sent money scrambling to find a place to profit or at the very least seek cover. It is obvious that today’s economic data, especially today’s ISM Manufacturing number, should be determining the next big.....read the entire article
