LONDON (AFX) - The euro was barely changed in midday trade with the few market participants not sidelined by the public holiday in the UK waiting for European Central Bank president Wim Duisenberg to deliver a speech at 2 pm, dealers said.
"We'll be looking for any sort of steer on the euro but I think he's going to choose his words very carefully," 4Cast currency strategist Paul Bednarczyk said of Duisenberg's upcoming address to the European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee. "He's obviously going to have to defend the ECB's recent surprise interest rate cut. When you look at this morning's German import price figures, for example, it looks as if rates should be going up and not coming down," he said.
German import prices rose 0.5 pct in April from March, and were up 5.1 pct from a year earlier. This followed higher German inflation figures last week.
Amongst other euro zone figures due out this week, dealers said M3 adjusted money supply growth is expected to slow further in April, taking the rate of growth even further below the ECB. Also closely watched will be the euro zone purchasing managers index for the manufacturing sector.
In the U.S, which is closed for a public holiday, the focus this week will be on Friday's non-farm payroll numbers, which sparked alarm last month.