PMIs Highlight Lessening U.S. Advantage against Europe
December 4, 2013
The U.S.-minus-Euroland service-sector purchasing manager index differential was 2.7 points last month, down from 3.8 points in October and 7.9 points in August. The sum of the non-manufacturing and manufacturing spreads, seen in the rightmost column below fell by 0.5 points to 8.4 points in November and was 3.8 points lower than in August.
The U.S. services index, 53.9, was 1.5 points less than in October and 4.7 points below August’s 2013 peak. Sales, jobs and prices posted October-to-November declines of 4.2, 3.7 and 3.9 points. But being above 50, all of the categories showed continuing positive growth last month. All that’s happening is a deceleration of the recovery.
Euroland’s services PMI slipped by 0.4 points to 51.2, a three-month low. The German and Spanish services PMI readings went up by 2.8 and 1.9 points, whereas the Italian, Irish and French indices dropped by 3.3, 3.0 and 2.9 points, thus underscoring the uneven nature of Europe’s fragile post-recession performance.
| PMIs | U.S. | Ezone | U.S. | Ezone | Sum of | ||
| Services | Services | Spread | Mf’g | Mf’g | Spread | Spreads | |
| Jan 2012 | 56.8 | 50.4 | +6.4 | 54.1 | 48.8 | +5.3 | +10.9 |
| Feb | 56.1 | 48.8 | +7.3 | 51.9 | 49.0 | +2.9 | +10.2 |
| March | 55.0 | 49.2 | +5.8 | 53.3 | 47.7 | +5.6 | +11.4 |
| April | 53.7 | 46.9 | +6.8 | 54.1 | 45.9 | +8.2 | +15.0 |
| May | 54.1 | 46.7 | +7.4 | 52.5 | 45.1 | +7.4 | +14.8 |
| June | 52.7 | 47.1 | +5.6 | 50.2 | 45.1 | +5.1 | +10.7 |
| July | 52.9 | 47.9 | +5.0 | 50.5 | 44.0 | +6.5 | +11.5 |
| August | 54.3 | 47.2 | +7.1 | 50.7 | 45.1 | +5.6 | +12.7 |
| Sept | 55.2 | 46.1 | +9.1 | 51.6 | 46.1 | +5.5 | +14.6 |
| October | 54.8 | 46.0 | +8.8 | 51.7 | 45.4 | +6.3 | +15.1 |
| November | 54.8 | 46.7 | +8.1 | 49.9 | 46.2 | +3.7 | +11.8 |
| December | 55.7 | 47.8 | +7.9 | 50.2 | 46.1 | +4.1 | +12.0 |
| Jan 2013 | 55.2 | 48.6 | +6.6 | 53.1 | 47.9 | +5.2 | +11.8 |
| February | 56.0 | 47.9 | +8.1 | 54.2 | 47.9 | +6.3 | +14.4 |
| March | 54.4 | 46.4 | +8.0 | 51.3 | 46.8 | +4.5 | +12.5 |
| April | 53.1 | 47.0 | +6.1 | 50.7 | 46.7 | +4.0 | +10.1 |
| May | 53.7 | 47.2 | +6.5 | 49.0 | 48.3 | +0.7 | +7.2 |
| June | 52.8 | 48.3 | +4.5 | 50.9 | 48.8 | +2.1 | +6.6 |
| July | 56.0 | 49.8 | +6.2 | 55.4 | 50.3 | +5.1 | +11.2 |
| August | 58.6 | 50.7 | +7.9 | 55.7 | 51.4 | +4.3 | +12.2 |
| Sept | 54.4 | 52.2 | +2.2 | 56.2 | 51.1 | +5.1 | +7.3 |
| October | 55.4 | 51.6 | +3.8 | 56.4 | 51.3 | +5.1 | +8.9 |
| November | 53.9 | 51.2 | +2.7 | 57.3 | 51.6 | +5.7 | +8.4 |
Copyright 2013, Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved. No secondary distribution without express permission.
Tags: U.S. and euro area service-sector purchasing managers survey results
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