Another Wall Street record favors consolidation at high levels in Asian markets. The MSCI Asia Pacific regional index is around yesterday's levels, but Shanghai is up 1,5% after the private PMI (from HSBC-Markit) climbed to 52 in July, above the level of 51 expected by analysts.
The belief is spreading that China will be able to meet the 7,5% growth target and the number of indicators that suggest that last year's slowdown represents a downshift and not an involution of the cycle is increasing.
Gold, which does not like good news on the economy (these portend rate hikes and therefore make the yellow metal – which pays neither interest nor dividends – less attractive than the alternatives), is returning below 1300 and quota in the Japanese early afternoon 1299,5 $/oz.
In the currency field, the euro is stable at 1,346 and so is the yen: 101,5 against the dollar. WTI oil stands at 103,1 $/b, on yesterday evening's levels.
