The U.S. September PMI basically shows that businesses are doing better, hiring more actively, but the cost of doing business is rising quickly again. The composite PMI rose from 56.0 in August to 58.4, the highest level in over five years. Both the services and manufacturing sectors are improving, and companies are hiring at the fastest pace in more than four years. At least based on this survey, demand in the U.S. economy is still relatively strong. The problem is that the cost of buying raw materials, paying for shipping, and wages is also increasing, with overall cost growth hitting the fastest pace since October 2022. If these costs keep rising and businesses are unwilling to absorb them, they might end up raising prices, passing the burden onto consumers, which would make it harder to bring inflation down. For those hoping for rate cuts, this might not be good news. After all, with the economy still growing and businesses willing to hire, the Fed won’t be in a rush to cut rates to stimulate the economy. If price pressures continue to rise, there will be even more reasons to maintain higher interest rates. As for U.S. stocks and #Bitcoin, if the market starts to believe that rates will be higher than expected or stay high for longer, prices could come under pressure. One @Gate, trade more markets.