The headlines were understandably dominated by the impressive US economic data releases, but manufacturing PMI in Germany and the eurozone was released. In October, Germany manufacturing PMI dropped to 52.5 from 53.7 the previous month and just below the 52.3 the markets had been expecting. It was a similar story in the eurozone, with a reading of 52 from 53.2 the previous month and just missing expectations of 52.1.
The euro weakened against the dollar, which rallied across the board following the release of non-farm payrolls data. It made some very slight gains against sterling, but in truth the moves were marginal. It wasn’t a great week for the euro against the pound, following reports that a financial services deal had been tentatively agreed between the UK and EU. This helped support sterling on Wednesday and Thursday, where it made some significant gains against the single currency and the dollar.
There are no major economic data releases on the eurozone’s schedule today, but tomorrow we will see composite and services PMI from Germany and the eurozone. We will also see German factory orders for September which are expected to have fallen to -0.6% from 2% the previous month.
