Euro area preliminary PMIs likely to weaken modestly in December

Euro Area's Preliminary Markit manufacturing PMI is for December is expected by the market consensus to be steady at 52.8, while the services PMI is likely to modestly drop to 54.0 and Composite PMI is also expected to be unchanged from that of its previous recording.

In France, the PMIs in manufacturing, services and the composite PMI is expected to be steady to little changed by the consensus. In Germany, very slight drops are expected by the market participants in all the PMIs' preliminary releases for the month of December 

"We expect the euro area PMIs to weaken this month by three ticks in both services and manufacturing (to 52.5 and 53.9 respectively). Looking at the breakdown, our models suggest a weakening in the German PMIs with a significant fall of 52.9 to 52.1 in manufacturing", says Societe Generale in a research note.