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The good news just keeps coming... UK Manufacturing in contraction... EUR markets falling...

http://www.investing.com/news/econo...n-april-for-first-time-in-over-3-years-399463

Investing.com - Manufacturing activity in the U.K. contracted in April for the first time in over three years, industry data showed on Tuesday.

In a report, market research group Markit said that its U.K. manufacturing PMI fell to a seasonally adjusted 49.2 last month from a reading of 51.0 in March. That was its lowest level since February 2013.

Analysts had expected the index to advance slightly to 51.2 in April.

On the index, a reading above 50.0 indicates industry expansion, below indicates contraction.

Additionally, the report showed near-stagnant trends in output and new orders, while price deflationary pressures eased.

Markit noted that the weakening performance of the manufacturing economy was mainly felt in the consumer and investment goods sectors, with both registering declines in production and new work received.

The research group also remarked that although the intermediate goods sector managed to sustain growth of output and new order inflows, rates of expansion were weaker than in the prior month.

Commenting on the report, Rob Dobson, senior economist at survey compiler Markit, said, “The UK Manufacturing PMI fell below its critical 50.0 mark for the first time in over three years in April, highlighting a further deepening of the sector’s downturn at the start of the second quarter.”

“On this evidence manufacturing production is now falling at a quarterly pace of around 1%, and will likely act as a drag on the economy again during the second quarter and putting greater pressure on the service sector to sustain GDP growth,” he added.

The pound weakened after the report. GBP/USD was trading at 1.4731 from around 1.4761 ahead of the release of the data, while EUR/GBP was at 0.7869, compared to 0.7860 prior to the report.

Meanwhile, European stock markets were broadly lower. London’s FTSE 100 lost 0.61%, the Euro Stoxx 50 fell 1.20%, France's CAC 40 shed 1.17%, while Germany's DAX traded down 1.50%.