Carsten Brzeski, the Global Head of Macro at ING, notes that the first outcome of today's European Central Bank (ECB) meeting is "no changes at all, not even tweaking the language on asset purchase front-loading". He suggests that the ECB clearly wants to avoid any taper talk and therefore chose to stay put.

"The ECB just announced...well, the ECB didn’t announce anything new. In fact, the just-released monetary policy decision was an anticlimax for those expecting any change. It is an almost verbatim copy of the April decision. No change in rates, no change in asset purchases and no change to the language that asset purchases will be conducted “at a significantly higher pace than during the first months of the year”."

"The ECB is obviously, and in our view rightly so, buying time despite higher actual inflation prints and the prospects of a further acceleration of inflation. With hard data not yet matching the optimism reflected in strong soft indicators, the ECB is currently choosing to err on the side of caution rather than withdraw monetary stimulus prematurely."