Europe open: Most markets closed for International Worker's Day

LONDON (ShareCast) - European markets are closed for International Worker's Day, apart from the UK and Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) . Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Greece, Iceland, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Portugal and Eastern Europe will be closed all of Friday.

Investors will instead focus on UK and US markets and developments in Greece.

European Central Bank official Benoît Coeuré has indicted that the monetary authority could lift the cap on the value of short-term debt the Greek government is allowed to issue under its bailout deal.

Coeuré made the suggestion to senior officials from Eurozone finance ministries Wednesday evening, sources told The Wall Street Journal.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has said he expected a deal by the end of next week after the government reshuffled its negotiating team.

"But none of this guarantees a deal will be done and that's going to make investors a little nervous ahead of the long weekend which is why I expect this risk aversion to grow as we move through the session," said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA.

"We've seen plenty of examples in recent years of things drastically changing over the weekend and markets responding in their usual panicking manner when they reopen. There's no reason to think that won't happen again." In economic data, the UK and the US sees the release of manufacturing activity reports.

China's manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) remained at 50.1 in April, better than the 50 reading that was expected and above the 50 level that signals an expansion. The non-manufacturing PMI fell to 53.4 in April from 53.7 the previous month.

The in-line manufacturing PMI provided a boost for copper, which reached $2.88 per pound in morning trade. Rio Tinto (Xetra: 855018 - news) and Anglo American (LSE: AAL.L - news) gained on the back of the rally.

Lloyds Banking Group impressed in London after delivering a bigger-than-forecast 21% jump in underlying profits in the first quarter as impairment charges more than halved.

In commodities, Brent crude fell 0.03% to $66.76 at 09:13 London time, according to the ICE.

The euro was up 0.30% to $1.1258.