Economic calendar: US retail sales, ECB rate decision

• European markets set to open higher

• ECB rate decision at 1:30 pm BST

• US retail sales expected to have increased in March

Futures markets point to a higher opening for the majority of the European blue chips indices. A point to note is that many markets in the Western countries will be shut tomorrow as Easter break begins. Having said that, today is the final trading day ahead of the long weekend and traders may want to keep that in mind as some portfolio rebalancing may take place.

There are few interesting events scheduled for today but the two that stand out are ECB rate decision at 12:45 pm BST (press conference at 1:30 pm BST) and US retail sales report release at 1:30 pm BST. While ECB is not expected to change level of rates today, some guidance on how it plans to cope with inflation may be offered.

12:00 pm BST - CBRT rate decision

12:45 pm BST - ECB rate decision

1:30 pm BST - US, retail sales for March.

• Headline. Expected: 0.6% MoM. Previous: 0.3% MoM

• Ex-autos and gas. Expected: 0.9% MoM. Previous: -0.4% MoM

1:30 pm BST - US, jobless claims. Expected: 172k. Previous: 166k

3:00 pm BST - US, University of Michigan consumer sentiment for April. Expected: 58.9. Previous: 59.4

3:00 pm BST - US, business inventories for February. Expected: 1.0% MoM. Previous: 1.1% MoM

Wall Street earnings releases

• Citigroup (C.US) - before market open

• Morgan Stanley (MS.US) - before market

• State Street Corp (STT.US) - before market open

• Goldman Sachs (GS.US) - before market open

• US Bancorp (USB.US) - before market open

• Unitedhealth Group (UNH.US) - before market open

• Wells Fargo (WFC.US) - before market open