The USD has eeked out some very marginal gains in slow Asian trade, EUR/USD presently down at 1.3625 compared to a North American close Thursday around 1.3645, while cable is down at 1.5215 from around 1.5230.

Risk sentiment is in pretty good shape with Asian stockmarkets making gains. However there is some event risk coming down the pike this morning. There are a number of important European economic data releases due, the main one’s as follows

06; 00 GMT: German Q-1 GDP expected -3.0% q/q, -6.0% y/y

09:00 GMT: Euro zone Q-1 GDP expected -2.0% q/q, -4.1% y/y

09:00 GMT: Euro zone CPI for April expected 0.4% m/m, 0.6% y/y, core 1.6% y/y.