Good morning New York,
FT ALPHAVILLE
Again with the China PMI divergence: The difference between the official and HSBC/Markit PMIs for the Chinese economy is now at its greatest for 15 months, Kate notes. While July's official PMI gives the impression that growth is stabilising, it's not clear where the divergence is coming from...
NEWS
Super-strong UK manufacturing PMI. The Markit/CIPS reading for July, 54.6, topped even the highest forecast collected by Reuters and showed that manufacturing production has increased for four straight months. The number's also a 28-month high (Markit release).
Eurozone manufacturing also showed signs of expansion for the first time in two years. PMI data rose to 50.1 in July from 48.8 in June, better than Bloomberg's median estimate (Bloomberg).
Lloyds Banking Group back in profit and ready to talk on resuming dividend: the bank posted earnings of £2.13bn in the six months to June 30, contrasting with a £456m loss in the same period last year. PPI charges rose again though. Lloyds shares are now at or close to the price for the British government to break even on its 39 per cent stake, ahead of an anticipated sale within months (Financial Times, Lloyds shareholder letter).
Shell's results disappointed. Profit fell 60 per cent in the second quarter, mostly following a charge of more than $2bn on North American shale assets. Excluding the charge, profit was $4.6bn down 20 per cent (Wall Street Journal).
Profit more than doubled at Societe Generale, to €955m in the three months to June 30. The bank said that its leverage ratio was around 3 per cent, and that it would exceed 3 per cent by the end of the year -- the threshold regulators have set for 2018 (Wall Street Journal).
Markets: The Shanghai composite rose 1.8 per cent earlier on that cheerier Chinese PMI data, while European indices were up following a slew of corporate earnings, and ahead of ECB and BoE meetings. US stock futures were seen up 0.3 per cent (Bloomberg).
