ZEW expectations fell 6.6 points to 28.1. Do analyst surveys move the euro for you?

The ZEW's economic expectations indicator for Germany fell 6.6 points to 28.1 in October, the ZEW said on 20 October. The September reading had been 34.7 (ZEW report). A positive reading means more respondents expect conditions to improve over the next six months than expect them to worsen.

The survey measures expectations, not current activity, and it is published before many of the hard German data. Its effect on the euro may be small, because the figures that follow, such as orders and inflation, often matter more to the ECB. The ZEW publishes the indicator every month, so one reading is best compared with the run of previous months rather than with the one before it alone.

We would like to hear how you use it:

• Do you trade the ZEW on the day, or treat it as background for the German data?
• Does a fall of this size change how you read Bund yields or EUR/USD?
• Which hard German data do you check first to confirm or challenge the survey?
• Have you seen the ZEW move the euro, and then reverse once the next data came out?

For the German figures that followed, see German factory orders and German inflation.

Please share your own approach and reasoning, not calls for others to copy. Posts that promise a direction or sell signals will be removed.