After a bloodbath in European PMIs (and a 'surprise' surge back to growth in China), and following some serious collapses in regional Fed surveys (and this morning's tumble in Canadian PMIs), today's US manufacturing survey data was expected to slide further into contraction (though not as much as the Services surveys collapsed).

Markit's US Manufacturing PMI fell modestly from 49.2 to 48.5 in March (modestly better than the 48.0 flash print) - a considerably smaller drop than many expected.

ISM's US Manufacturing survey fell modestly from 50.1 to 49.1 in March (far better than the 44.5 print expected)