Today's data calendar is very light. The main focus will probably be the April labour market report in the UK. Employment growth has been very strong in recent months and we expect another drop in the unemployment rate to 6.7% from 6.8% in March. Focus will remain on how long Bank of England can avoid discussing an interest rate hike.
There are a couple of ECB speeches on the agenda today. The most interesting is ECB board member Mersch's speech in connection with a conference on asset-backed securities (ABS) in Barcelona, which might give an idea of how big an hurdle practical issues are for ECB for an ABS programme based on SME-bank loans. ECB board member Nowotny is also scheduled to speak.
German chancellor Merkel will meet ECB president Draghi in Berlin at 11:00 CET but so far no press conference has been scheduled in connection with the meeting.
The OPEC countries will meet in Vienna but are not expected to change current quota for crude oil production.
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