German data props up European shares after two-day sell-off

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* Main markets steadier but still slightly lower
* Two-day fall since Friday was biggest in 3 yrs
* Deutsche Post ups forecast, Oerlikon cuts guidance
* German industry orders show recovery in June

Aug 6 (Reuters) - European shares were marginally lower on
Tuesday, steadying slightly after posting their biggest two-day
drop in over 3 years, as upbeat German data soothed some of the
nerves around the past week's escalation of U.S.-China trade
tensions.
By 0714 GMT, the pan-European benchmark stocks index STOXX
600 .STOXX was down just 0.1% with Britain's commodity-heavy
FTSE 100 .FTSE underperforming .
Washington on Monday formally tagged China a currency
manipulator for the first time since 1994, responding to
Beijing's allowing of the yuan CNY= to weaken past 7 per
dollar for the first time in a decade.
Although the yuan steadied on Tuesday after a 2.3% slump in
the past three days, analysts saw China's decision as a signal
that it will not back down and that a trade war which is already
affecting global growth will only worsen from here.
Against that, however, was data showing German industrial
orders were up 2.5% in June from the previous month, the biggest
jump since August 2017. Germany's DAX .GDAXI gained 0.3% in
response and the German-dominated auto sector .SXAP led gains
amongst sub-sector indexes.
Earnings in the region were mixed with shares of Deutsche
Post DPWGn.DE rising nearly 3% after the German post and
logistics group affirmed its guidance for the second half of
2019 and 2020. Switzerland's OC Oerlikon OERL.S fell 1.5%
after the industrial group cut its 2019 guidance.

In M&A, shares of Germany's Metro B4B.DE slumped 8% after
Czech businessman Daniel Kretinsky's investment vehicle
confirmed it would not raise its 5.8 billion euro bid for the
German retailer and wholesaler.