Markit will be releasing a special flash PMI reading this morning at 08.30 GMT 22 July

Further to my post last week just a heads-up on this one-off reading today.

  • Markit said that it would be releasing a Flash PMI for the UK on July 22 at 0830GMT to "help provide clarity on the potential impact of the UK's EU referendum on the economy, and is a response to demand from users".
  • the flash release will contain the manufacturing and service components as well as a set of "weighted-composite indices reflecting economic trends across the 2 sectors combined".
  • this would be a one off and that there are no plans to produce a flash number on a regular basis.

The readings will be based on 70% of the normal responses over a slightly shorter period of time.

Given the current market fragility you can be sure of some action if the release is wide of expectations. Remember that the services sector is the key one given its large contribution to UK GDP

Forecasts are:

  • services 48.8 vs 52.3 prev
  • mftg 48.7 vs 52.1 prev
  • composite 49.0 vs 52.4

GBPUSD currently 1.3244 after an early bit of short covering to 1.3260.