Latest data released by Markit/BME - 22 March 2019

  • Prior 47.6
  • Services PMI 54.9 vs 54.8 expected
  • Prior 55.3
  • Composite PMI 51.5 vs 52.8 expected
  • Prior 52.8

Boom! That's a massive miss on manufacturing/factory sentiment and it is sending the euro to session lows on the day. It's a third straight contraction for manufacturing PMI but the size of the miss here is really what is driving the euro lower at the moment.

For some context, the manufacturing print is the lowest since August 2012 while the composite print is dragged lower as a result to its weakest print since June 2013.

Markit notes that "as long as you get growth in the services sector, you can avoid a wider recession". However, I reckon that it's hard to justify any positive signs of an economic rebound in the German economy when things are already so bleak with the outlook not any better.

EUR/USD took a dive from 1.1370 to a low of 1.1318 where it sits just above now.