US factory orders and auto sales rise, eurozone inflation and unemployment fall

Following Monday's strong manufacturing purchasing managers data, reports on Tuesday provided further signs of good growth for the US economy.

US factory orders rose 0.7 percent in April. It was the third consecutive increase and followed a 1.5 percent rise in March.

A report from Autodata showed that US auto sales surged 11.4 percent in May from a year earlier to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 16.77 million units, the strongest pace since February 2007.

Meanwhile, the euro area reported on Tuesday that its inflation rate fell to 0.5 percent in May from 0.7 percent in April.

While this could put pressure on the European Central Bank to ease monetary policy further, another report on Tuesday showed that the unemployment rate also fell to 11.7 percent in April from 11.8 percent in March.