In May, German factory orders rose for a second straight month, while the consen-sus was looking for a decline. On a monthly basis, German orders rose by 1.8% M/M and the previous figure was slightly upwardly revised from 2.8% M/M to 2.9% M/M. Looking at the details, strength was based in domestic orders (11.3% M/M), while foreign orders fell by 5.8% M/M in May. The sharp increase in domestic orders was due to a record order by German rail operator Deutsche Bahn for 300 high speed trains, worth more than €7 billion. While the headline figure was sharply stronger than expected, this was entirely due to a big-ticket domestic order, while for-eign orders fell back sharply, indicating that the global soft patch is affecting the German economy.