Economic calendar: Wall Street earnings in focus

• European markets seen opening higher

• GBPUSD dropped slightly after UK labour market data

• Netflix, Johnson & Johnson and Travelers among earnings reporters

European stock markets are seen opening slightly higher today following a mixed session in Asia. While declines seem to have been halted, traders should keep in mind that yesterday's sentiment was upbeat throughout the morning and moods started to deteriorate in the afternoon. Today's economic calendar is light but investors will be offer a lot of US earnings reports. 

UK labour market report for February has been released at 7:00 am BST. Report showed average earnings growth (excluding bonuses) of 4.4% YoY, while market expected increase of 4.2% YoY. However, earnings growth including bonuses disappointed as it came in at 4.5% YoY (exp. 4.8% YoY). Employment declined by 73k over the past 3 months, while the market expected a reading of negative 150k. Whole report can be seen as a positive surprise, yet GBPUSD has dropped 0.1% since the release.

9:40 pm BST - API report on oil inventories. Expected: +0.9 mb

US earnings releases

• Abbott Laboratories (ABT.US) - before market open

• Interactive Brokers (IBKR.US) - after market close

• Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.US) - before market open

• Lockheed Martin (LMT.US) - before market open

• Netflix (NFLX.US) - after market close

• Procter & Gamble (PG.US) - before market open

• Philip Morris International (PM.US) - before market open

• Travelers (TRV.US) - before market open