The only release of note from the eurozone yesterday was the construction PMI figure from Germany. In August, the figure came in at 51.5 but last month, the reading dropped to 50.2. A slowdown in the pace of housing and commercial activities contributed to the fall, while civil engineering activities contracted. On the plus side, new orders rebounded a little, although the pace of job creation eased to its second-weakest level since February 2017.
The euro weakened a little against sterling, but it did manage to gain some ground against the dollar. This will certainly be welcome, following six consecutive days of decline. However, the euro has still lost more than two cents against the dollar in the last week or so; any gains will have to be to a larger extent than we saw yesterday to retrace its position.
Today begins with the factory orders figures from Germany for August. The reading in July was extremely disappointing, as orders fell by 0.9%. However, expectations are more optimistic this time around, with economists predicting that orders increased by 0.5% last month.
