Traders paid attention to some preliminary data from the Eurozone on Tuesday. German manufacturing PMI for March slipped to 45.7 from 48.0 previously, but the services sector crashed to 34.5 from 52.5 in February. Both numbers fell short of expectations and remain deeply below the 50.0 threshold, which indicates a recession is on the way.
Additionally, the EU manufacturing sector dropped from 49.2 to 44.8, but the services PMI cratered from 52.6 to 28.4 as other countries in the region were hit even more than Germany.
Meanwhile, gold and silver soared for the second day as the Federal Reserve unleashed the unlimited quantitative easing program. The central bank now has a mandate to buy corporate, muni, and agency bonds. It looks like inflation is coming to the US after this deflationary collapse is over.
From other news, stock investors cheered the latest Fed's decision, while the US government is also planning a large (more than 2 trillion USD) fiscal stimulus to combat the fallout from the coronavirus, which also helped equities on Tuesday. All three major US benchmarks hit the limit up during the London session, while EU indices also gained 4-5%.