(RTTNews) - European stock markets are advancing Thursday morning as traders welcomed the U.S. Federal Reserve's move to inject more money into the economy. Meanwhile, the Bank of England is widely expected to keep its bond-purchase plan at $322 billion today. The ECB will take a call on its key rates later today. U.S stock futures are pointing to a sharply higher open. Yesterday, U.S. stocks recovered from their mid-session losses to end modestly higher after the Federal Reserve said it would buy $600 million in Treasuries in a phased manner, to help recover the sagging economy. Elsewhere, Asian stocks ended higher as traders turned positive after the Fed move. Automakers were in the limelight, with Nissan, Toyota and Honda rising around 3% each. Nissan reported a third quarter net income of JPY101.73 billion, significantly up from JPY25.23 billion reported a year ago. In the commodities market, crude for December delivery is up $1.01 to $85.70 a barrel. Wednesday during the New York session, the EIA said crude oil inventories moved up by 2.0 million barrels in the week ended October 29 , while gasoline stocks dipped by 2.70 million barrels. Analysts were expecting crude inventories to rise by 1.2 million barrels and gasoline stocks to increase by 200,000 barrels last week. The price of gold is moving higher amid a weak dollar. Gold for December delivery is adding $24.40 to $1,362.00 an ounce. In economic news, the euro zone service sector recovery continued to lose momentum in October, survey data by Markit Economics showed. At 53.3, down from 54.1 in September, the final Markit Eurozone Services Business Activity Index fell to its lowest level since February and was little changed from the earlier flash estimate of 53.2. Meanwhile, euro zone producer price index rose 4.2% year-on-year in September, Eurostat said. That matched economists' expectations. However, German service sector expanded at a faster than expected rate in October, latest report from Markit Economics showed. The services business activity index climbed to 56 from September's 54.9. Economists had expected the reading to remain unchanged at 56.6 as reported in the flash estimate. Among stocks, Australian miner BHP Billiton is advancing over 5%, to a record-high, after Canada blocked its $130 per share hostile takeover for Canadian fertilizer maker Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. The world's biggest bank by assets BNP Paribas is adding nearly 5% after reporting a bigger-than-estimated 46% jump in profit. Unilever is gaining around 5% after reporting earnings that topped forecasts.

Source