Europe and the US both reported weaker-than-expected results from purchasing managers’ indices on Thursday, with German manufacturing deeply in contraction territory and the American composite PMI showing it weakest reading in three years. China-related shares in Europe nonetheless continued to rise. Daimler was the top performer on Germany’s DAX index with a 2.12% gain overnight and a 29% total return year to date. The big economic story of 2019 remains better-than-expected growth in China and worse-than-expected growth in the US. China has managed to reverse a late-2018 drop in growth impulse, while the American ... (full story)