Manufacturing has been the ultimate victim of the trade war during the last two years, especially in Europe. Manufacturing has fallen in contraction in US and China as well, but in the Eurozone and particularly in Germany, manufacturing has been in deep contraction for quite some time. It did improve a little in the last couple of months, which offered a ray of hope, but, today’s figures wiped those hopes off. Below are the manufacturing figures from Europe:

France Manufacturing Report

• December flash manufacturing PMI 50.3 vs 51.5 expected
• November 51.7
• Services PMI 52.4 vs 52.1 expected
• November 52.2
• Composite PMI 52.0 vs 52.0 expected
• November 52.1

German Manufacturing Report

• December flash manufacturing PMI 43.4 vs 44.6 expected
• November 44.1
• Services PMI 52.0 vs 52.0 expected
• November 51.7
• Composite PMI 49.4 vs 49.9 expected
• November 49.4

UK Manufacturing Report

• December flash manufacturing PMI 47.4 vs 49.2 expected
• November 48.9
• Services PMI 49.0 vs 49.5 expected
• November 49.3
• Composite PMI 48.5 vs 49.5 expected
• November 49.3

So, everything is weaker than in November this month, which means things are going from bad to worse. The European Central Bank has said that the monetary easing earlier this year is having effects on the economy already. But, manufacturing reports for November show the opposite, so the ECB is likely to remain dovish, which will keep the Euro dovish too for the long run.