At 50.9, the final PMI composite index for July signalled a slightly slower expansion of business activity. The latest print is 0.1 points below the flash estimate and consensus but 0.3 points above June's final.

At the national level, the best-performing countries were Spain (54.7), Italy (51.5), and Germany (50.6), all of which experienced an expansion of business activities. The weaker performing country was France (48.6), which contracted, falling short of the 50-growth threshold.

The final services PMI for July was 51.5, 0.2 points below the flash estimate and consensus but 0.5 points above June's final. This signalled faster expansion of service activity. New export business fell again in July for the twenty-sixth month in a row, while new business largely remained unchanged. Employment continued its modest increase. Input costs and output charges continued to rise, albeit less than in June.

The Eurozone PMI composite continued to expand in July. Today's data leaves the Eurozone RPI at 35 and the RPI-P at 38, meaning that economic activity is overall modestly outperforming market expectations.

No change from the flash at 51.0 is the call for the July composite final, versus 50.6 in the June final. No change is expected from the flash at 51.2 for services versus 50.5 in the June final.

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.