European equity markets expected to decline after Wall Street's decline. The Eurostoxx 50 opened at 4,189.42 points down 0.17%, the CAC 40 at 6,770.11 points (-0.73%), the DAX 30 at 15,965.97 points (+0.28%), the FTSE 100 at 7,169.32 points (-0.16%), the SMI at 12,545.35 points (+0.54%), the AEX at  771.48 points (+0.09%), the BEL 20 at 4,342.24 points (+0.44%), the IBEX 35 at 8,970.20 points (+1.18%), the DJIA at 34,960.69 points (-1.08%), the Nasdaq at 14,525.91 points (-0.89%), the S&P 500 at 4,400.27 points (-1.07%) and the Nikkei 225 which is down 0.70%.

As regarding the exchange rate, the change from the close in New York, EUR/USD opens at 1.1676 down 0.29%, EUR/JPY at 128.64 (+0.09%) and USD/JPY at 110.19   with an increase of 0.38%.

European equity markets are expected to open sharply lower on Thursday, in the wake of Wall Street's decline, after the release of the minutes of the last monetary policy meeting of the US Federal Reserve (Fed), which revealed that central bankers were increasingly in favour of a reduction in the institution's asset purchases this year. At 7:40 a.m., the CAC 40 futures contract lost 45.2 points, or 0.7%, according to data from broker IG Markets. The DAX 30 contract was down 105.3 points, or 0.7%, and the FTSE 100 contract was down 45.8 points, or 0.6%. The New York Stock Exchange lost ground on Wednesday, amid concerns about economic recovery. The decline in the indices was accentuated after the release of the Fed minutes, which confirmed the hypothesis of a reduction in the central bank's asset purchases before the end of the year. Investors also reacted to the announcement of a sharper-than-expected decline in U.S. housing starts in July (-7%), while building permits granted rose higher than expected (+2.6%), according to Commerce Department figures. In Asia, equity markets are losing ground on Thursday morning. At the end of the session, the Shanghai Composite was down 0.7%, the Hang Seng index was down 1.7% in Hong Kong and the Nikkei index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange gave up 0.7%.

US Treasury yields fell Thursday morning, after rising in reaction to the release of minutes from the Fed's monetary policy committee. At 7:25 a.m., the yield on the benchmark ten-year U.S. Treasury bond stood at 1.261%.

The euro retreats Thursday morning against the dollar but gains some ground against the yen. The greenback is also rising against the Japanese currency, supported by the prospect of a decrease in the Fed's asset purchases. Overall, the dollar's near-term uptrend remains intact and the fact that the Fed is moving closer to tapering could allow the greenback to continue to appreciate, IG says.

Oil prices continue their decline Thursday morning, after falling the day before to their lowest level since last May. Concerns about the impact of the health crisis on energy demand are weighing on oil prices, although the U.S. Department of Energy on Wednesday announced a drop of more than 3 million barrels in U.S. crude inventories last week. At 7:30 a.m., the October Contract for North Sea Brent lost 90 cents to $67.33 a barrel. The September contract for light sweet crude (WTI) listed on the Nymex was down $1.10 to $64.35 a barrel.