If you're an American, you're in the waning hours of the long three-day Labor Day weekend, which represents the unofficial end of summer.
If you weren't paying attention at all since Friday, here are the two big market/economics things you missed.
First:
- Economic data has been strong all around the world. Starting with the official Chinese PMI number on Saturday night, and continuing through the European economic data on Monday morning, there's been a string of strong data. Europe is clearly recovering, and China hard-landing fears have been put off. Even Korean exports (which are seen as a global bellweather) were strong. Only India really had a bad PMI number, and that's expected.
- Markets moved in a bullish formation on Monday. Stocks surged in Europe (Germany up 1.7%, Italy up 1.8%), in part due to strong data, but also in part due to a risk-on tone helped (it seems) by the pause in Syria tensions. Gold dipped a hair. Same with oil.
So there you have it: Strong data, and bullish markets.
Welcome back! It's going to be a huge September.