A poor showing from retail PMI's in October
The latest retail PMI's from the Eurozone fell in October.
Eurozone 48.6 v s49.6 prior
Germany 51.0 vs 53.0
France 47.5 vs 49.1 prior
Italy 46.5 vs 45.0 prior
Italy was the only one that gained but is still in contraction.
Perhaps more importantly we need to look at the Sep numbers ahead of the main Eurozone retail sales report at the top of the hour.
They we're much better either.
EZ 49.6 vs 51.0
Germany 53.0 vs 54.1
France 49.1 vs 53.0
Italy 45.0 vs 43.2 prior
This won't be a direct indicator of the Sep sales as these are firm surveys, not consumer surveys but as the customer is the driver of firms fortunes, the surveys do give us some idea of what's going on.
Markit note that sales were down for the 4th month in 5.
"The retail sector's recent less-than-impressive performance continued into the final quarter, as sales dropped for the fourth time in the past five month and at the fastest rate since June. The only bright spot in an otherwise gloomy picture was Germany, though sales there rose only marginally and at the slowest rate for six months. "Belying the ongoing downturn in sales, retail employment continued to edge higher and there was also a renewed upturn in spending on goods for resale; perhaps a reflection of still-strong sentiment towards future sales prospects."
Sales are expected to fall -0.3% vs -0.1% prior m/m, and Rise 1.3% vs 0.6% prior y/y.
Retails numbers can often be volatile, so be warned, not that we see the euro move much on this type of data anyway. ;-)
