European equity markets are set to open on a tentative note as investors analyze a fresh set of corporate results and await monetary policy decisions from the Bank of England, Norway's Norges Bank and Bank of Turkey. At 7:35 am, the futures contract on the CAC 40 gained 7 points, or 0.1%, according to data from the broker IG Markets. The contract on the DAX 30 gained 6.5 points, or 0.04%, and that on the FTSE 100 rose by 5.5 points, or 0.08%.

The Bank of England (BOE) is set to signal for the first time that it will soon be ready to tighten monetary policy as the outlook for the UK economy improves more than expected for this year, including an acceleration in the inflation beyond the level at which the bank should act to keep it around its official target of 2%.

Bank of America analysts estimate that the BOE will have to reduce its purchases from 4.4 billion pounds sterling (5.09 billion euros) to 3.2 billion pounds per week if it wants to continue its purchases until the end of the year within the limits of the current limit of 875 billion pounds. Maintaining the program at its current rate would de facto mean ending it earlier than planned.

In the United States, Wall Street ended generally higher on Wednesday, carrying the Dow Jones index to a new record, after robust figures on employment in the private sector and despite still marked selling movements in the technology compartment. The Dow Jones Index (DJIA) closed up 0.3% to 34,230.34 points. The broader S&P 500 index gained less than 0.1%, to 4,167.59 points. The Nasdaq index for its part aligned a fourth consecutive session of decline, losing 0.4%, to 13,582.42 points.
In Asia, the markets are moving in scattered order, while stock exchanges in China and Japan have reopened after three public holidays in these countries. At the end of the session, the Nikkei index gained 1.6% and the Hang Seng index of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange rose by 0.2%.