REUTERS/NASA/Carla Cioffi/Handout
Here's the scorecard:
France's CAC 40 is up 0.84%
Spain's IBEX is up 0.67%
Italy's FTSE MIB is up 0.49%%
Britain's FTSE 100 is up 0.64%
Germany's DAX is up 1.21%, leading the way again.
Asian markets closed mixed. The Hang Seng bounced back overnight, closing up 1.17%, while the Nikkei closed down at 0.75%.
US futures are mostly flat. S&P futures are up 0.01% and Dow futures are down 0.02%.
From Europe, the Bank of England's latest decision on monetary policy is out at 7:00 a.m. ET and European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi is making a speech at 12.00 p.m. ET. Analysts will be looking for any hint of further easing, as the outlook for the Eurozone seems to get grimmer by the day.
In the US, jobless claims come out 8.30 a.m. ET. Economists estimate weekly claims climbed to 294,000 from 287,000 a week ago.
We'll also get US factory orders. Economists estimate orders fell by 9.5% in August.