Market News
Euro zone: upbeat PMIs
EUR/USD strengthened by more than 50 pips to $1.3850, supported by the upbeat preliminary euro zone PMI figures for April.
With the exception of the French results, the German and euro zone manufacturing and services PMI exceeded forecasts (see the table). Composite euro zone business activity reached a 3-year peak (54.0 vs. 53.1).
“Today’s figure buys the ECB a bit more time. With the recovery still on track there doesn’t seem to be an urgent need for strong action, though deflationary pressures still warrant attention. People expecting an imminent large-scale asset purchase program on the back of current economic figures are likely to be disappointed”, ING economists said.