STOCK MARKET WATCH - Thursday, 5 January 2012

[Ghost Dog]

23. Euro-Region Industrial Orders Miss Estimates

European industrial orders increased less than economists estimated in October, adding to signs of a deepening economic slump in the single-currency region.

Orders (EUNGEZM) in the 17-nation euro region rose 1.8 percent from September, when they dropped 7.8 percent, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said today. Economists (EUNGEZM) had forecast orders to increase 2.5 percent, the median of 11 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey showed. Producer-price inflation (EUPPEMUY) slowed to 5.3 percent in November from 5.5 percent in the previous month, a separate report showed.

Cooling global growth, rising unemployment and budget cuts from Spain to Italy may make it difficult for European manufacturers to sustain order growth, pushing the economy closer toward a recession. Siemens AG (SIE), Europe’s largest engineering company, said on Dec. 21 that it planned to cut jobs to shore up earnings. Euro-region manufacturing output contracted for a fifth straight month in December.

“Overall, the trend is likely to point downward, supporting our view that euro-area gross domestic product will contract for three consecutive quarters from the fourth quarter of 2011,” said Thomas Costerg, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank in London. Recent data “reinforce our view that the economy is already in recession.”

/... http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-05/euro-region-industrial-orders-miss-estimates.html