In the data calendar the focus will mainly be on US data. Durable goods orders for April should give us an idea of the strength of the rebound in business capital expenditure in Q2. A slight decline is expected, largely reflecting a payback on a solid gain in March. We also expect the Conference Board consumer confidence to have increased a little ahead of consensus expectations on the back of higher stock prices and an improving labour market.
Focus will continue to be on ECB's central bank forum in Sintra, Portugal, even though ECB vice-president Constancio yesterday said that current policy issues will not be discussed at the forum. Most interesting today will be an armchair discussion with ECB president Draghi at 15:30 CET. ECB chief economist Praet will chair most of today's discussions.
EU-leaders are scheduled to meet this evening in Brussels to discuss the outcome of the EU-election and the appointment of a new President of the European Commission. So far Jean-Claude Juncker, representing the centre-right parties, is the favourite but both the UK and Hungary have said they will block his candidacy.
In Sweden the semi-annual opinion poll and trade balance for April will be released.
To Read the Entire Report Please Click on the pdf File Below