European shares are called to open broadly higher Thursday despite a sell off in global markets Wednesday on the back of renewed concerns over the euro zone’s debt crisis, with Spain in the spotlight and markets already dented by little hope of further monetary stimulus stateside.
The FTSE 100 is seen opening the trading day up 5 points, Germany's DAX is seen up by 6 points and the CAC is expected to open higher by 15 points.
U.S. and European equity markets will take a pause for the Easter holiday from Friday through to Monday but investors will still look out for March’s jobs report due Friday.
Analysts forecast that over 200,000 jobs were created in the month but unemployment remained unchanged at 8.2 percent.
The Bank of England announces its interest rate decision on Thursday.
It is widely expected to leave rates on hold at 0.5 percent as growing positive economic sentiment reduces the need for further monetary stimulus.
Immigration and trade within the EU will be foremost matters for Nicolas Sarkozy if he wins re-election, his foreign minister said in an interview with the Financial Times.
Sarkozy will outline his economic policies later today.
The FT also reported that Morgan Stanley has been in talks with Moody’s, the credit ratings agency to stave off a downgrade that could hurt its chances of buying the rest of Citigroup brokerage Smith Barneys.
The paper said citing people familiar with the matter.
Yahoo is expected to reduce its workforce by around 14 percent by laying off 2,000 staff as it struggles to compete with rivals Google and the social networking site Facebook.