The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s index of business conditions registered a big unexpected fall into negative territory, on Thursday.
Here’s the breakdown of the survey results via Bloomberg:
As can be seen, the index fell to -7 in August, whilst analyst consensus had been looking for a figure of +7.0.
That data adds to an already bleak set of US jobless figures out on Thursday, which showed new claims for US umemployment benefits expectedly climbed to a nine-month high last week of 500,000. Analysts had been expecting the figures to slip to 476,000.
The news, unsurprisingly, added further fuel to the bond rally:
German 10-year bund yields also hit a record low of 2.301 per cent. Ouch.