Owing to technical reasons we shall not be covering the ISM index release today

Due to technical reasons we will not be issuing any updates today between 1pm GMT and 4pm GMT today. That means we will not be covering the release of the important US ISM manufacturing index, which is due to be released at 2pm GMT. This is regrettable but unavoidable. We shall be back in touch to pick up on the markets sometime after 5pm GMT, or perhaps a little earlier if possible.

So, at 2pm GMT we get a pretty important US data release and that is the July ISM manufacturing index. This can definitely have an impact across all the US markets. It is forecast to rise to 53.9 from a reading of 53.3 in June. The prices paid component is forecast to moderate slightly, from 73 to 71. New orders are forecast to rise slightly, from 56, to 56.7. The employment component is also forecast to improve slightly, from 49.7, to 50.0. 

So, as you can see quite a few moving parts to this index and those can sometimes eclipse the headline number itself, assuming that is close to what is expected. We just noted the gains across the Nasdaq 100 futures this morning (which are still dissipating by the way) and right now we focus briefly on the Dow Jones, which was the weakest of the three majors on Friday, despite gaining 0.53% on the session. The index closed 276 points higher, at 52,485, but had traded as high as 52,623 during the session. The futures are in the green this morning and are currently the best performing of the three main indexes. The Dow has priced the opening as high as 52,825. The Dow Jones futures is currently the opening around 52,795