The euro was heading to end Friday as the strongest currency on the Forex market despite the worsening market sentiment. The currency ignored the PMI data from Markit, which showed slowing growth of the manufacturing industry and accelerating decline of the services industry.

Markit released a bunch of flash reports for the eurozone. The eurozone manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to 54.7 in January from 55.2 in December, close to market expectations. The eurozone services PMI dropped to 45.0 from 46.4 but was above the consensus forecast of 44.4.

Reports for specific countries showed the same picture. The German Manufacturing Pmi declined to 57.0 from 58.3, matching forecasts. The services PMI slipped to 46.8 from 47.0 but was noticeably above the median forecast of 45.1. The French manufacturing PMI defied the trend, rising to 51.5 from 51.1, whereas analysts were expecting a decline to 50.6. The services PMI declined to 46.5 from 49.1, missing the market consensus of 48.3.

Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at IHS Markit, commented on the data:

A double-dip recession for the eurozone economy is looking increasingly inevitable as tighter COVID19 restrictions took a further toll on businesses in January. Output fell at an increased rate, led by worsening conditions in the service sector and a weakening of manufacturing growth to the lowest seen so far in the sector’s seven-month recovery.

EUR/USD was up from 1.2159 to 1.2172 as of 19:32 GMT today, touching the high of 1.2189 intraday. EUR/GBP gained from 0.8857 to 0.8892, and its session maximum was at 0.8919. EUR/JPY rallied from 125.93 to 126.35.

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Post tags: EUR/GBP, EUR/JPY, EUR/USD, Eurozone, IHS Markit, Manufacturing, PMI, Service Industries

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