(RTTNews.com) - The French market is higher in afternoon trading Thursday, ahead of the all-important decision from the European Central Bank. The Asian markets rose, the U.S. index futures are higher and Spanish borrowing costs fell, with all eyes on ECB president Mario Draghi.
Draghi is expected to announce measures to battle the sovereign debt crisis that has plagued the euro area, which could include buying bonds of peripheral governments. He told European lawmakers in a closed-door meeting on Monday that the central bank is not averse to buying government bonds of up to three-year maturities on the secondary market.
The ECB is likely to cut its record low benchmark interest rate, known as the refi, to 0.50 percent from 0.75 percent. The bank will announce its rate decision at 7.45 am ET.
At its meeting, the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England is widely expected to maintain the asset purchase program unchanged at 375 billion pounds and the key interest rate at a historic low of 0.50 percent. The announcement is due at 7.00 am ET.
The U.K. government said it would relax the planning rules for building extensions on houses and business premises as part of a new package to be unveiled today, reports said. Under the planned package, an attempt to rebuild the economy, homeowners will be temporarily allowed to build extensions and carry out major renovations without seeking a planning approval.
Spain's Treasury sold 3.5 billion euros from the auction of securities, matching the upper end of the target range of 2.5 billion euros to 3.5 billion euros. It sold 682 million euros of securities maturing on April 2014, at an average yield of 2.798 percent. The cost declined from 4.706 percent at the previous auction in June.
The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks is adding 1.16 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. Companies, is rising 0.70 percent.
The CAC 40 index is currently rising 0.92 percent.
Lafarge is gaining 3.3 percent. Michelin is advancing 3.2 percent.
Credit Agricole is climbing 2.5 percent while BNP Paribas and Societe Generale are gaining 1.5 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively.
Peugeot is gaining 2.5 percent while Renault is advancing 2.1 percent.
GDF Suez is declining 1.8 percent. Alstom and Loreal are down 0.8 percent each. UBS cut Alstom to "Neutral" from "Buy" while Loreal was downgraded at Morgan Stanley.
Elsewhere in Europe, the German DAX is adding 1.30 percent and the UK's FTSE 100 is gaining 0.58 percent. Switzerland's SMI is rising 0.55 percent.
Across Asia/Pacific, Australia's All Ordinaries gained 0.8 percent, China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.7 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 0.34 percent. Japan's Nikkei 225 ended nearly flat.
In the U.S., futures point to a higher open on Wall Street. In the previous session, the major averages ended the day on opposite sides of the unchanged line. The Dow inched up 0.1 percent, while the Nasdaq slipped 0.2 percent and the S&P 500 edged down 0.1 percent.
In the commodity space, crude for October delivery is adding $1.10 to $96.46 per barrel and December gold is gaining $15.7 to $1709.7 a troy ounce.
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