Stocks Are Climbing Ahead Of Big News From The European Central Bank

European stocks are up, and we're waiting for some important news from the European Central Bank. The ECB will give an indication at 10:15 a.m. GMT about how much cheap credit banks have accessed in the latest effort to shake some life into Europe's economies.

Here's the scorecard:

France's CAC 40: +0.14%

Germany's DAX: +0.43%

UK's FTSE 100: +0.10%

Spain's IBEX: +0.48%

Italy's FTSE MIB: +0.49%

Asian markets closed down. Japan's Nikkei closed down 0.89%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended 0.90% lower, and China's Shanghai Composite dropped another 0.49%.

US futures are up a little. The S&P 500 is currently 6.75 points higher, while the Dow is up 53 points.

At 10:15 GMT we'll get the results of the ECB's second round of targeted long-term refinancing operations (TLTRO), which is the amount of cheap credit banks have accessed from the European Central Bank. The ECB has agreed to provide cheap loans to banks in an attempt to get the stagnant European economy moving again.

Analysts are expecting a take-up of just €130 billion. Any figure lower than that will likely be a disappointment for markets.