Economic calendar: ECB rate decision in the spotlight

• European markets seen opening higher

• ECB decision in the spotlight

• Intel to report earnings after Wall Street session close

US managed to snap a two-day losing streak yesterday. European blue chips indices are expected to build on top of yesterday's gains and launch today's trading higher.

European Central Bank rate decision at 12:45 pm BST is a key event of the day. ECB said during its previous meeting that it will accelerate bond purchases under its PEPP programme. While gross purchases indeed accelerated, net purchases remained near Q1 average in recent weeks. Journalists are likely to question President Lagarde about it during a press conference at 1:30 pm BST. Apart from that, Mrs Lagarde may also face questions about yesterday's BoC decision on bond purchase tapering.

9:00 am BST - Poland, data for March.

• Retail sales. Expected: +10.9% YoY. Previous: -2.7% YoY

• Construction output. Expected: -9.4% YoY. Previous: -16.9% YoY

12:45 pm BST - ECB rate decision

1:30 pm BST - US, jobless claims. Expected: 625k. Previous: 576k

3:00 pm BST - US, existing home sales for March. Expected: 6.18 million. Previous: 6.22 million

3:30 pm BST - EIA natural gas storage. Expected: 67 bcf. Previous: 61 bcf

Noteworthy US earnings

• American Airlines (AAL.US) - before market open

• American Electric Power (AEP.US) - before market open

• AT&T (T.US) - before market open

• Biogen (BIIB.US) - before market open

• Dow (DOW.US) - before market open

• Genuine Parts (GPC.US) - before market open

• Intel (INTC.US) - after market open

• Snap (SNAP.US) - after market close

• Union Pacific (UNP.US) - before market open