President Barack Obama is briefed by National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen, as Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Carol Browner listens aboard the presidential helicopter, Marine One, en route Port Fourchon, Louisiana, May 28, 2010. The New York Times says the failure of the most recent effort to stanch the oil leaking in the Gulf of Mexico since a drilling rig explosion on April 20th — known as a top kill, which BP officials expressed great optimism about before trying it — has underlined the gaps in knowledge and science about the spill and its potential remedies. Ever since the explosion and the resulting leak, estimates of how much oil is escaping have differed by thousands of barrels a day. Both government and BP officials said on Sunday that they had no accurate idea of how much oil was spilling into the gulf. “We honestly do not know,” BP's Robert Dudley said on NBC's “Meet the Press.” “We’ve always found this a difficult oil to measure because of the huge amounts of gas in the oil.”

Markets in the UK and the US are closed Monday for public holidays.

Several countries in Europe are cutting spending plans in response to the debt crisis and Italy was the latest to implement austerity measures last week. However, the Eurozone as a whole isn’t tightening its fiscal belt this year amid concerns about the vitality of the global economic recovery.

“The news this week out of Germany, France and Italy largely reflects decisions about how the fiscal tightening that has already been planned for next year will be achieved,” economists at US bank JPMorgan Chase said in a research note Friday. “Thus, this recent news from these countries does not affect our estimate of the fiscal drag in the region. Overall, we continue to see fiscal policy as largely neutral this year and only turning tighter in the region as a whole from next year (by just over 1% of GDP). That fiscal policy is not tightening yet in the entire region is largely due to ongoing loosening in a few countries, notably in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Finland. This easing broadly offsets the very large tightenings that are already planned in Spain (2.7% of GDP), Portugal (2.4% of GDP), and Greece (9.5% of GDP).”

Meanwhile, economists at investment bank Goldman Sachs, commented that the additional tightening measures that have been announced since the €75bn Eurozone rescue package was launched will restrain GDP growth by 0.1%-0.6% at moment of peak impact - - “which we expect to be broadly neutralized by the recent depreciation of the trade-weighted euro.” A weaker euro gives European exports a boost.

Packed week after today's lull: Davy chief economist, Rossa White, comments  - - "Markets will be slow today in Europe as the US and UK enjoy a holiday. Last week saw some stabilisation in credit and money markets, although conditions generally remain more stressed than at any point in the last nine months. The focus will shift to a packed week of economic data from tomorrow. Friday's payroll report in the US will be strong: the market is expecting a near-record jump of more than 500,000. Some key data reports are due in Ireland too, including tax figures, PMIs and Live Register.

We do not think that the H2 outlook for Ireland has deteriorated, despite the recent turmoil in financial markets. A weaker euro is a positive, albeit that the impact on the dollar cross is exaggerated (most Irish exports to the US are priced in dollars). We think that for the 'core' euro area economies it is a net positive: the competitive boost may more than offset further fiscal tightening. That will benefit Ireland indirectly. And, even though Ireland's government bond spreads have nudged higher further out the curve, the absolute level of yields is virtually unchanged thanks to the rally in German bunds. Bank funding is still the niggling concern.

Leading indicators have deteriorated in the US over the last few weeks. The ECRI index had reached its highest point since early 2008 in mid-April. It has slipped back to its lowest point since last August, mainly on tighter financial conditions. But data were generally solid last week, with the possible exception of US consumer spending figures. This week's ISM (in the US) and PMI (in Europe) will likely point to further improvements in real activity in Q2. As long as financial markets settle down again in the next month, the forward-looking picture will recover lost ground."

Why BP will likely face fines and other civil penalties and should the company be barred from other Federal contracts, with Steve Pearlstein, Washington Post; Robert Burton, Venable LLP; and John Kilduff, Round Earth Capital: