Economic calendar: BoE rate decision, US PPI inflation

• European indices set to open slightly higher
• Bank of England expected to deliver 25 bp rate hike
• Speeches from Fed and ECB members

Futures markets point to a slightly higher opening of the European cash session today with DE30 attempting to break back above 16,000 pts mark. This comes after a rather mixed and uneventful Asian session earlier and a highly volatile Wall Street session. Energy commodities traded higher this morning while precious metals traded little changed. USD and JPY are the best performing G10 currencies while EUR and AUD lag the most.

Economic calendar for the day is rather empty but includes some top-tier releases and events from Europe and the United States. Bank of England is set to announce its next monetary policy decision today at 12:00 pm BST and market is almost certain that it will be a 25 basis point rate hike. Real question is what comes next - will BoE hit a dovish note as Fed did or will it stay on previous course in an attempt to bring down inflation that remained above 10% in March. Apart from BoE decision, investors will also be offered PPI and jobless claims data from the United States as well as speeches from a number of Fed and ECB members.

12:00 pm BST - Bank of England rate decision

1:30 pm BST - US, PPI inflation for April.

• Headline. Expected: 2.5% YoY. Previous: 2.7% YoY
• Core. Expected: 3.3% YoY. Previous: 3.4% YoY

1:30 pm BST - US, jobless claims. Expected: 245k. Previous: 242k

3:30 pm BST - EIA natural gas storage data. Expected: +78 bcf. Previous: +54 bcf

Central bankers' speeches

• 11:30 am BST - ECB De Cos
• 12:30 pm BST - BoE Governor Bailey (post-meeting press conference)
• 1:00 pm BST - ECB Schnabel
• 1:45 pm BST - Fed Kashkari
• 3:15 pm BST - Fed Waller
• 3:45 pm BST - ECB De Cos
• 6:30 pm BST - ECB De Guindos