Daily update
Daily update
- The China-US summit concluded. Much increasingly scarce jet fuel has been burned to produce nothing of real substance. China’s President Xi declared an agreement to keep trade ties stable. The two sides were unlikely to agree to anything different (no one would announce unstable trade ties). Stability is not a word that is normally associated with US trade policy over the past 15 months, lessening the statement’s value.
- US April industrial and manufacturing production data is due. These are volatile numbers; after plunging in March, the figures are seen recovering (with an upside bias to the consensus). However, the Biden-era factory building boom has slowed dramatically during the past year, and almost 80,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost since January 2025.
- A UK cabinet minister resigned. Markets failed to react at all (which must be rather distressing for the politician concerned). UK chief executives are reportedly complaining about political uncertainty —but any chief executive who cannot manage political uncertainty should probably reconsider their career choices. Prejudice politics, single issue politics, and political polarization mean political uncertainty and policy swings will be part of the economic landscape for a long time.
- Italian final April consumer price inflation will not interest markets. The US Empire State manufacturing sentiment poll is due.