Will Mario Draghi wield the rate-cutting ax next week? With even Germany’s purchasing managers’ index pointing to a contraction in private-sector activity in April, economists are boosting the odds of a rate cut by the European Central Bank as early as its May 2 policy meeting. “All in all, the latest batch of PMI data, signaling continuing weakness for the euro area at large and increasingly spreading to the core, raises the prospect of an ECB rate cut next week,” wrote economists at Barclays. See: Europe faces threat of full-fledged depression. That came after preliminary PMI readings for April showed German ... (full story)