After a strong start of the year, German factory orders fell back sharply in March. On a monthly basis, factory orders plunged by 4.0% M/M in March, while the con-sensus was looking for a slight increase (0.4% M/M). The previous figure was down-wardly revised from 2.4% M/M to 1.9% M/M. The details show that both domestic (-3.5% M/M) and foreign (-4.3% M/M) orders were weak in March. Weakness was mainly based in capital goods orders (-7.2% M/M) while also consumer goods orders (-0.6% M/M) dropped. Intermediate goods orders (0.3% M/M) rose slightly. German orders fell at the sharpest pace in more than two years, although this is a poor reading, there is no need to worry as orders are notorious volatile (and weak-ness was due to big ticket items) and other data show the German manufactur-ing sector continues to grow at a strong pace.