US: Markit Manufacturing PMI rose to 53.7 in July

During its August monetary policy meeting the ECB Governing Council decided to leave the main interest rate unchanged at 0.5% for the third consecutive month. At the following press conference the ECB head Mario Draghi repeated the forward guidance introduced last month, namely that the key interest rates would remain at the current or even lower levels for "an extended period of time," although that was dependent on the outlook on inflation.