Markets Are Heading Higher

Britain's FTSE is up 0.4%.

France's CAC 40 is up 0.4%.

Germany's DAX is up 0.5%.

Spain's IBEX is up 0.7%.

Italy's FTSE MIB is up 0.9%.

Later this morning, we will get monetary policy decisions from the Bank of England and the European Central Bank. Economists expect no change in the ultra loos monetary policies.

In the U.S., we'll get a tally of initial weekly jobless claims. Economists estimate claims fell to 325,000 from 344,000 a week ago.

"Initial jobless claims have trended higher in the past couple weeks," noted Nomura economists. "We need to observe claims in coming weeks to determine if this trend continues and if there has been any deterioration in labor market performance."

U.S. futures are in the green with Dow futures up 18 points.