Manufacturers from the eurozone’s two largest economies painted a gloomy picture of the outlook for the sector on Wednesday, with closely-watched indicators sinking to more than two-year lows in both countries. In Germany, the decline in sentiment extended to the services sector, dragging the composite output purchasing managers’ index to a 41-month low of 52.7. The fall in the gauge was far sharper than analysts polled by Reuters had expected: a drop of just 0.2 points to 54.8 had been anticipated.

After multiple turnaround plans and promises to restore growth, Deutsche Bank AG investors are no longer buying the talk, Bloomberg News reported. The German lender -- already the worst-performing major bank stock in Europe this year -- closed at a record low on Wednesday after Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing conceded that cuts to the investment bank are having a deeper impact than expected. The continued bleeding, despite a decade-long bull market, is fueling speculation the bank may need to be merged before the next crisis hits.

Increasing competitive pressures inside and outside Europe could lead to additional airline restructurings and bankruptcies, the German government said in a response to a parliamentary query that was published on Thursday by the Handelsblatt newspaper. The government did not comment on whether it would offer other airlines help such as the 150 million euro bridging credit it provided to Air Berlin, Germany's second largest airline, when it ran into trouble last year, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

Germany’s finance ministry has presented plans for a European unemployment stabilisation fund designed to arm the eurozone against crises, in a response to French president Emmanuel Macron’s call for deep reform of the currency union, the Financial Times reported. The fund proposed by Olaf Scholz, the social democrat finance minister, would lend to recession-hit countries with high unemployment and strained social security systems. Recipients would repay the money once they had resolved their economic problems.

Finance professionals’ view of the German economy has darkened much more than expected amid domestic political instability and as tensions over the trade dispute with the US and concern over Brexit intensify, the Financial Times reported. The Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany dropped 14 points in October from September to minus 24.7, according to the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW). Economists had expected the index to drop to minus 12. The index has reached the same low-point registered in July of this year, which was the lowest reading since August 2012.

Bond markets are signaling that German retailer Douglas Gmbh, which grew over two centuries from a small perfumery and soap maker in Hamburg into one of the largest beauty chains in Europe, may have expanded too far, Bloomberg News reported. Investors are concerned the private company will struggle to repay 2.1 billion euros ($2.4 billion) of debt used to fund its buyout and purchase of brick-and-mortar chains as the rise of online competition pressures retailers from Toys “R” Us Inc. to Sears Holdings Corp. to close shops or restructure debt.