Japanese data (supporting the points we made in our latest weekly message), paints a not-pretty picture of present global business conditions: emphasis mine…
“June’s preliminary machine tool orders data was a huge disappointment, with total orders
plunging 11%, led by a 16% decline in domestic orders. Domestic order levels are the lowest since
2013, almost 50% below the April 2018 peak. The 50% annualized decline in total orders on a 3m/3m
annualized basis through June was the weakest reading since January 2013. These data are reasonably
well-correlated to the global business cycle, so the absolute refusal to bottom in this series is a bad sign
for the prospects of a bottoming out in data related to activity around the world; that’s especially true
combined with PMI data.”
Bespoke Investment Group