Economic calendar: NFP to briefly distract traders from war news

• European stock markets set to open lower

• Attack on Ukraine nuclear power plant dominates headlines

• US NFP report for February to be released at 1:30 pm GMT

European index futures point to a lower opening of the European cash session today. Risk trades took a hit overnight after a Russian attack on Zaphorozia Power Plant, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, led to a fire at the site. Fire has been contained already but Russian forces have captured the plant. According to Ukrainian and US nuclear agencies, no damage to reactors was done and there is no risk of a Chernobyl-like disaster.

As this is the world's first direct attack on a nuclear power plant, traders should expect war news to dominate today's headlines. It cannot be ruled out that traders will seek to lower their exposure to equity markets ahead of the weekend. Nevertheless, there is also one report scheduled for today that may trigger some large moves on the markets - NFP report for February. Expect higher volatility on USD-tied FX pairs near the release time (1:30 pm GMT).

9:00 am GMT - Italy, GDP report for Q4 2021 (final). First release: 0.6% QoQ

10:00 am GMT - Euro area, retail sales for January. Expected: 9.2% YoY. Previous: 2.0% YoY

1:30 pm GMT - Canada, building permits for January. Expected: 1.9% MoM. Previous: -1.9% MoM

1:30 pm GMT - US, NFP report for February.

• Non-farm payrolls. Expected: 440k. Previous:467k

• Average wage growth. Expected: 5.8% YoY. Previous: 5.7% YoY

• Unemployment rate. Expected: 3.9%. Previous: 4.0%

3:00 pm GMT - Canada, Ivey PMI index for February. Expected: 54.2. Previous: 50.7