New Year Kicks Off with Rising Equities, Gold & Silver Prices, and Many December Manufacturing Purchasing Manager Survey Releases
January 2, 2026
Led by tech and small cap stocks, U.S. equity futures traded up by 0.5% or more. stock markets in Japan, New Zealand and China remained closed, while impressive first day gains of 2.8%, 2.3%, 1.3% and 1.2% were made in Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Indonesia. European stock markets so far have risen somewhat.
Last year’s super-charged gold and silver price rallies didn’t stop going, rising overnight by 1.5% and 3.1%, respectively. WTI oil is a half percent cheaper.
In contrast to a two-basis point downtick in the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield, comparable European sovereign debt yields climbed this first session of 2026 by four basis points in Italy, three bps in France and Spain and two bps in the U.K. and Germany.
The most notable purchasing manager survey out today involves renewed signs of fragility in Euroland’s manufacturing sector where the overall reading fell to a 9-month low of 48.6. Demand also weakened at the fastest clip in 9 months, and the sub-index for output dropped to a 10-month low. Order backlogs shortened, and a two and a half year long slump in jobs continued. Among member economies, the German PMI reading of 47.0 was the lowest and at a 10-month low. The Italian PMI of 47.9 was at a 9-month low, and Spain’s PMI score, which had been as high as 54.3 last May, slumped from November’s 51.5 to an 8-month low of 49.6. The Irish, Dutch, and Austrian PMIs were also below their November levels. One bright spot was France’s 42-month high of 50.7 versus 47.8 in November and a 55-month low of 41.9 in December 2024.
Among other European manufacturing PMI reports today, Turkey’s index printed at a 12-month high of 46.9; Switzerland’s index climbed 1.5 points to a three-year high of 49.7; Sweden’s measure moved 0.6 points higher and at 55.3 was near to September’s 55.8 reading which had indicated the fastest growth since the spring of 2022; and the British index was revised lower but nonetheless stayed above the 50 neutral level at a 15-month high of 50.6.
The U.S. S&P Global-compiled manufacturing PMI in December was unrevised from the preliminary estimated 51.8 reading, which implies the slowest expansion in five months. Last year’s high and low readings of 53.3 in August and 49.8 in July ironically were set in adjacent months. Elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere, the Canadian PMI edged 0.2 higher last month to a 2-month high of 48.6. The Mexican PMI fell 1.2 points to a 6-month low of 46.1. Also showing a greater pace of contraction (signified by a reading further south of 50), Brazil’s PMI slid 1.2 points to a 3-month low of 47.6.
Australia’s PMI was revised down from a preliminary estimate of 52.2 to merely match November’s 3-month high of 51.6.
In Asia, Indian manufacturing, though robust compared to many other economies, fell 1.6 points to indicate the slowest growth in two years with a reading of 55.0. Vietnam and Indonesia had their lowest PMIs in three and two months, respectively 53.0 and 51.2. The South Korean PMI rose 0.7 points to a 3-month high of 50.1, and Taiwan’s 50.9 reading was at a 10-month high. Malaysia matched November’s 18-month high of 50.1, and the Filipino manufacturing PMI rose to a 4-month high of 50.2.
Portuguese consumer and business sentiment indices from December improved to 12- and 8-month highs.
The British Nationwide house price index fell 0.4% December and posted its smallest 12-month increase (merely 0.6%) in twenty months, down from a reading of 4.7% in December of 2024.
Czech GDP growth in the third quarter was left unrevised from an earlier 0.8% quarter-on-quarter increase and the highest on-year advance (2.8%) since the spring of 2022.
Real GDP in Singapore grew 4.8% last year, a tad faster than 4.4% in 2024.
Pakistani consumer price inflation slowed half a percentage point to a 4-month low of 5.6% in December, a a 0.6% year-on-year rise of wawholesale prices s the least since September.
The stock of M3 money in the euro area recorded year-on-year increases of 3.0% in November and 2.9% in September-November. Private credit growth quickened to a 3.4% on-year pace, and loans to households (2.9%) and to non-financial companies (3.1%) posted similar increases from November 2024.
Copyright 2026, Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved.
Tags: Euroland money and credit growth, manufacturing PMI results in December 2025, Pakistan CPI and WPI
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