• Business and consumer sentiment in the euro area continued to weaken in September.
• EUR/USD trades in negative territory below 0.9700 after the data.

The data published by the European Commission showed on Thursday that the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) for the euro declined to 93.7 in September from 97.3 in August. This reading came in weaker than the market expectation of 95. For the EU, the ESI fell by 3.5 points to 92.6.

"Amongst the largest EU economies, the ESI fell markedly in Germany (-4.8), the Netherlands (-3.7), Italy (-3.7), France (-3.2), Poland (-2.4) and, to a lesser extent, Spain (-1.0)," the publication read. 

Further details of the report revealed that the Industrial Confidence Index fell to -0.4 from 1 and the Services Sentiment Index edged lower to 4.9 from 8.1.

Finally, the Consumer Confidence Index for the euro area arrived at -28.8, a new all-time low, matching the flash estimate. 

Market reaction

The EUR/USD pair largely ignored these data and it was last seen losing 0.6% on the day at 0.9675.