European futures signal higher on hopes for QE3 

As the first European session of the week is about to start, European futures signaled higher after a week of incurred losses on hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve will be soon forced to launch the third round of quantitative easing, especially after the world's largest economy reported slower than expected growth data during the first quarter of this year.

Today's heavy data will focus on fundamentals from the world's major economies especially from the U.S, as consumer spending is expected with a rise during the month of March. Investors are also waiting for the release of the first reading for the Spanish GDP in the first quarter which is expected to show contraction worst than the fourth quarter reading.  

Looking closely at the euro, we can see that the currency inclined from the lowest reached level at the start of the Asian session at 1.3228 to currently trade at the levels of 1.3235 after opening at 1.3219. The EUR/USD reached the highest level for the day at 1.3263.

As for the Great British Pound, the currency is trading higher against the dollar at 1.6280 compared with the opening levels of 1.6270 noting that it reaching the highest level for the day at 1.6288 and the lowest levels at 1.6262.

As for gold, the commodity is also trading in narrow ranges to currently trade around 1664.51 per ounce compared with the opening levels of 1662.03 per ounce. Crude oil on the other end is also trading in narrow ranges around 103.97 after opening at 104.65 per barrel.

As for European futures, the French CAC 40 inclined by 0.34% at 3227.50, as for DAX it is hovering around 6849.00 up by 0.60% and finally FTSE 100 is also up by 0.30% to trade around 5758.00.