At 50.4, the final PMI composite index for April signalled a slight expansion of business activity. The latest print is 0.3 points above the flash estimate and consensus.
At the national level, the best-performing countries were Ireland (54.0), Spain (52.5), Italy (52.1), and Germany (50.1) all of which experienced an expansion of business activities. The weaker performing country was France (47.8) which contracted, while falling short of the 50-growth threshold.

The final services PMI for April was 50.1, 0.4 points above the flash estimate and 0.9 points below March's final mark. This signalled April had a much slower rate of expansion than March, only just above the 50-growth threshold. New business fell again in April while employment continued to rise modestly for a sixth consecutive month. Still, business optimism fell to its lowest in two and a half years. Input costs and output charges saw their slowest increase in several months.

The Eurozone continues to experience expansion, albeit at a slower pace than in March. Today's data put the Eurozone RPI at 19 and the RPI-P at 8, meaning that economic activity is well within market expectations.

No change from the flash at 50.1 is the call for the April composite final, down from 50.9 in March. No change is expected from the flash at 49.7 for services, down from 51.0 in March.

The Composite Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) provides an estimate of private sector output for the preceding month by combining information obtained from surveys of the manufacturing and service sectors of the economy. Results are synthesised into a single index which can range between zero and 100. A reading above (below) 50 signals rising (falling) output versus the previous month and the closer to 100 (zero) the faster is output growing (contracting). The report also contains the final estimate of the services PMI. The data are provided by S&P Global using a representative sample of around 5,000 manufacturing and services companies, the former including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, the Republic of Ireland and Greece and the latter Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Republic of Ireland.

Investors need to keep their fingers on the pulse of the economy because it dictates how various types of investments will perform. By tracking economic data such as the purchasing managers' manufacturing indexes, investors will know what the economic backdrop is for the various markets. The stock market likes to see healthy economic growth because that translates to higher corporate profits. The bond market prefers less rapid growth and is extremely sensitive to whether the economy is growing too quickly and causing potential inflationary pressures.