Less than expected decline in the Durable Goods Orders along with higher than projected new home sales added to optimism of a possible bottom in the economic downturn. U.S. New Home Sales fell 0.6% in March from 358,000 to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 356,000. Nonetheless, overabundance of unsold new homes and competition from foreclosed properties situated a 12% drop in the median sales price from a year earlier to $201,400.

The euro received a lift from better than expected PMI Manufacturing and Services surveys both of which printed materially stronger than forecast. The Manufacturing PMI rose to 36.7 from 34.7 eyed while the Services survey jumped to 43.1 from 42.1 projected. As we noted earlier, “Today’ s upward surprise should take some pressure off the ECB in the near term. European monetary authorities have come under enormous amount of criticism for keeping credit conditions too tight at a time when the rest of the G4 has implemented a near Zero Interest Rate Policy. The uptick in the PMI data suggests that the EZ economy is responding to a pick-up in global demand despite relative lack of fiscal and monetary stimulus.”

German and French PMI readings improved for the first time in months suggesting that that vicious contraction in demand that dogged the region over the past year may be showing nascent signs of stabilization. German Manufacturing PMI printed at 32.2 vs. 31.9 eyed while the Service PMI rose slightly to 41.7 from 41 forecast. The French data was better with services rebounding to 42.9 from 40.2 expected and manufacturing registering a reading of 36.3 versus 35 called. The EZ Composite PMI number also rose to 40.1 from 39.2 the period prior.