A light data day, a few bits and bobs from Australia:
2230GMT - Performance of Construction Index for December (this is the construction PMI)
- prior 46.6
Last week we got December manufacturing and services PMIs, both on the improve,
- Australia - Manufacturing PMI for December: 55.4 (prior 54.2)
- Australia - Services PMI for December: 57.7 (smashing the prior of 51.1)
0030GMT - Australia - Building Approvals for November
- expected +4.5% m/m, prior -12.6%
- expected -5.7% y/y, prior -24.9%
The previous month's data was a huge miss. I wrote last month on the data:
- Usual caveat, this is a volatile data set. Right, now that's out of the way ... TERRIBLE miss. And it comes after the big decline the previous month (revised to an even bigger fall). I wrote in the preview "That big dip in September is in keeping with the weakening in the trend for approvals. I expect that trend softening to continue, though m/m swings will be, as usual, volatile".
- The 'trend' results, which aren't good either:
The trend estimate for total dwellings approved fell 3.3% in October (m/m
Has fallen for five months
The y/y trend result is -7.2% - Housing construction has been a bright spot for the Australian economy as mining infrastructure investment has wound down (the 'capex cliff'). There is still housing construction work in the pipeline, but the pipeline is draining with big declines like these. This is a concern for the economy, what sector will pick up the slack next, if at all?
0030GMT also, Australia again - ANZ Job Advertisements for December
- prior +1.7% m/m