Economic calendar: Bankers speeches and earnings reports

• Bank of England expected UK economy to shrink 14% in 2020

• Initial jobless claims seen declining

• Christine Lagarde set to speak today

Investors are cautious on Thursday with European and US futures trading flat against yesterday's closing prices. BoE has already announced a rate decision while Norges Bank will do it at 9:00 am BST (no change is expected). Jobless claims will be the key release of the US session and are expected to show lower value than week ago. ECB President Lagarde is expected to be interviewed by Bloomberg today and questions about the latest German court ruling may be asked.

Bank of England announced the rate decision at 7:00 am BST. Central bankers unanimously decided to leave rates unchanged. Bank also left the scale of asset purchases unchanged but 2 members voted to increase it. In spite of BoE saying that it expects the UK economy to shrink 14% this year, GBP gained on the rate announcement.

European & US session

9:00 am BST - Norges Bank rate decision. 

1:30 pm BST - US, jobless claims. Expected: 3000k. Previous: 3839k

Asian session

0:30 am BST - Japan, household spending for March. Expected: -6.5% YoY

Central bankers' speeches

• 8:00 am BST - ECB's de Guindos

• 1:30 pm BST - Fed's Bostic

• 3:00 pm BST - ECB President Lagarde

• 4:30 pm BST - Riksbank's Floden

• 5:00 pm BST - Fed's Kashkari

• 9:00 pm SBT - Fed's Harker

Noteworthy earnings releases

• Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY.US) - before market open

• Raytheon Technologies (RTX.US) - before market open

• Booking Holdings (BKNG.US) - after market close

• Monster Beverage (MNST.US) - after market close