LONDON — European stocks are expected to open in positive territory Thursday, spurred on by gains in Asia-Pacific markets overnight.
The U.K.’s FTSE index is seen opening 28 points higher at 8,289, Germany’s DAX up 73 points at 18,997, France’s CAC 40 up 35 points at 7,599 and Italy’s FTSE MIB up 169 points at 33,982, according to data from IG.
The positive start to the trading day anticipated in Europe comes after Asia-Pacific markets rose overnight, with markets in the region led by Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Chinese markets extending gains.
Japan’s Nikkei climbed 2.12%, while the broad based Topix was up 1.65%, as the Bank of Japan released minutes of its July meeting. Mainland China’s CSI 300 extended its winning streak to the seventh day.
Stateside, meanwhile, futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were little changed on Wednesday night after the index broke a four-day winning streak. Traders will be keeping a close eye on the weekly jobless claims report, due Thursday.
Economists polled by Dow Jones anticipate 223,000 initial unemployment claims were filed for the week ending Sept. 21. The final reading of second-quarter gross domestic product is also out in the morning.
Several Federal Reserve officials are also slated to speak on Thursday, including Chair Jerome Powell and New York Fed President John Williams.
In Europe, earnings come from H&M Group and data releases include German consumer confidence figures from GfK.
— CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han and Lim Hui Jie contributed to this report.