European stocks set for broadly higher open amid more tariff news; BOE and earnings ahead

Good morning from London, and welcome to CNBC’s live blog covering all the action and business news in European financial markets on Thursday.

Futures data from IG suggests a broadly positive open for European indexes, with London’sFTSE 100 seen opening flat, France’s CAC 40 up 0.13% and Germany’sDAX up 0.3%, and Italy’sFTSE MIB 0.33% higher.

Global markets continue to keep an eye on the tariff landscape this week after U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday implemented an additional 25% tariff on India, days after he already imposed a 25% levy on the country.

“I find that the Government of India is currently directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil,” Trumpsaid in anexecutive order.

India said it is “extremely unfortunate that the U.S. should choose to impose additional tariffs … for actions that several other countries are also taking in their own national interest,” according to astatement, adding that its imports are based on “market factors and done with the overall objective of ensuring the energy security of 1.4 billion people of India.”

The president also signaled on Tuesday that he will announce new tariffs on semiconductors and chips as soon as next week.

It’s another busy day of earnings Thursday, with Siemens, Deutsche Telekom, Allianz, Zurich Insurance, Merck, Moeller Maersk, Swisscom, Henkel, Rheinmetall and Uniper all due to report. Data releases include French and German trade balances.

The Bank of England will be publishing its latest monetary policy decision, with the central bank expected to cut interest rates from 4.25% to 4%.

— Holly Ellyatt