US durable goods add to the string of disappointing US data

•     US durable goods add to the string of disappointing US data

–    Headline was boosted by aircraft and autos, but core figure was lower again

–    Wall Street economists revised down their Q1 GDP forecasts as a result – this is likely to weigh on the dollar this week (GDP out on Wednesday)

•     Eurogroup meeting shows no progress on Greece

–    Malta FinMin:  “complete breakdown of communication with Greece”

–    ECB to keep supplying liquidity, but will discuss at May 6^th meeting whether to pare it back – that could force a solution.

•     Iron ore prices rebounding

–    May help AUD to recover

•     Today:

–    Eurozone: No indicators; ECB VP Constancio & board member Coeure speak

–    Norway: Norges Bank Gov. Olsen speaks

–    US: preliminary Markit service sector PMI, Dallas Fed manufacturing index.

•     This week:

–    Tuesday: UK Q1 GDP

–    Wednesday:  FOMC meeting (no press conference or updated forecasts); Sweden Riksbank meeting (small cut in rates expected); German CPI for March; US Q1 GDP

–    Thursday: BoJ meeting (no change expected); RBNZ (no change expected

–    Friday:  End-of-month data, including CPI, from Japan