It was more broadly a quiet week internationally, with corporate earnings reports dominating attention particularly in the US and Europe.
Amongst a heap of US reporters, Amazon.com stands out with its 17% jump post strong profits on Thursday night – AMZN is a US$220bn company, meaning that the 17% jump in its share price adds the equivalent of a company the size of Wesfarmers (WES) in its value!
Today China’s July manufacturing data was pre-released, and the report was frankly disappointing and indicative of China’s industrial economy being as weak as it has been at any point in the past 3 years.