Euro Stays Weak Despite Marginally Better Manufacturing Data Set

Purchasing managers index numbers from Europe failed to significantly move the single currency against the US Dollar and Japanese Yen today. The Italian, French, German, and Eurozone PMIs came out marginally better than expected.

Despite the improvement in manufacturing sentiment, market focus remained on fiscal difficulties in Europe as Greece prepares for a second round of elections in two weeks.

European leaders are hoping the elections will usher in a government which will adhere to the terms of the massive bailout agreement between Greece and the European Union, but the last Greek elections last months failed to produce a stable government.

Recent instability has weakened the Euro, which traded quietly against the US Dollar and Japanese Yen today as markets waited to absorb US non-farm payroll data which was due out at 1230 GMT.