German Factory Orders Fall by 1.9% versus a Forecasted 1.0% Decline

It’s a relatively quiet day on the Eurozone economic calendar today. German factory orders were in focus ahead of the European open.

Later this morning, French nonfarm payrolls for Q4 are due out. The payroll numbers should have a muted impact on the EUR and the CAC40.

German Stats Disappoint Again

In December, factory orders slid by 1.9% month-on-month, partially reversing an upwardly revised 2.7% jump in November.

According to Destatis,

• Manufacturers of intermediate goods saw a 0.8% increase in new orders month-on-month.
• Consumer goods producers recorded a 6.4% jump in new orders.
• Manufacturers of capital goods, however, reported a 4.6% slide in new orders, month-on-month.
• In 2020, new orders in the manufacturing sector were 7.2% lower than in the year prior.
• Compared with the same month a year earlier, orders were up by 6.7%.
• New orders were 2.6% higher than in February 2020, the month prior to the introduction of COVID-19 restrictions.

Market Impact

After taking hits earlier in the week, the EUR showed some resilience in spite of the disappointing numbers.

Upon release of the stats, the EUR rose from $1.19655 to $1.19669 before hitting reverse. The reversal saw the EUR slide to $1.19629 before finding support, steering well clear of an early current day low $1.19521.

At the time of writing, the EUR was up by 0.01% from the open to $1.19626.

For the European equity markets, the disappointing numbers failed to weigh on the DAX futures ahead of the open.

At the time of writing, the DAX30 was up by 30 points.

This time around, both the EUR and the DAX had the promise of further fiscal support to cushion the blow.