Charts today - manufacturing competiveness, surprises in Surprise indicators and a European earnings update

Some interesting charts I have come across today. 

 

Fascinating changes in manufacturing competitiveness over the last decade or so.  The accompanying report in The Financial Times highlights that the UK is now the cheapest place to manufacture in Western Europe.  Noteworthy too is the lowered cost competiveness of countries such as China which, in my view, is driving policy with the yuan too

 



 

You can see an element of this evolution in the Chinese competitiveness position with the changes in the structure of their balance of payments

 

 

The 'fragile five' currencies as a grouping may need to be renamed...

 



 

...and the US surprise indictor is itself a bit of a surprise:

All of this speaks to a more optimistic environment, which  is why the VIX is so low.  That still seems too optimistic to me...

...so maybe we need some fundamental inputs.  Interesting recent European earnings data.  We are not at the stage of a sustainable above-trend growth rate global economy yet.