Japanese machinery orders up, German investor confidence down

Japan's recovery still looks intact. From AFP/CNA:

Japan's core private-sector machinery orders, a closely watched indicator of capital spending, rose by a bigger-than-expected 3.4 percent in February, official figures showed Monday.

Year-on-year, core private-sector machinery orders, which exclude particularly volatile demand from electric utilities and for ships, were up 8.2 percent, the Cabinet Office said.

But the evidence on Germany's continues to be ambiguous. From Bloomberg:

Investor confidence in Germany, Europe's largest economy, unexpectedly declined for a third month in April after a jump in energy costs tempered the outlook for consumer spending.

The ZEW Center for European Economic Research's index of institutional and analyst expectations fell to 62.7 from 63.4 in March, the Mannheim-based institute said today. Economists expected it to rise to 65.5, according to the median of 39 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. In January, the index reached a two-year high of 71.