EUR/USD eases from tops on softer German Flash Manufacturing/Services PMI

The German manufacturing sector contraction deepened in October, the latest manufacturing activity report from IHS/Markit research showed this Thursday.
 
The German manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) remained firmly in contraction territory at 41.9 in October. This represented a marginal improvement from September’s ten-year low of 41.7, though fell short of consensus estimates pointing to a reading of 42.0. Meanwhile, the rate of growth of service sector business activity eased to just over three-year low level of 51.2 during the reported month.
 
The IHS Markit Flash Germany Composite Output Index came in at a two-month high level of 48.6 in October vs. September’s 48.5 and 48.8 expected.
 
The data quickly negated the optimism led by a bounce in French PMIs and exerted some downward pressure on the shared currency, forcing the EUR/USD pair to trim a part of its early strong gains to levels beyond mid-1.1100s.