European Shares Seen Tad Higher After Fed Decision

Asian markets advanced on hopes of fresh policy easing measures from central banks, though an impasse in U.S. economic negotiations and another record day for coronavirus cases worldwide kept gains in check. Gold eased and the dollar hovered near two-year low against its rivals.

The U.S. on Wednesday passed the grim record of 1,50,000 coronavirus fatalities while the total number of cases neared 4.4 million.

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that his administration and Democrats in Congress were still "far apart" on a new coronavirus relief bill.

Quarterly national accounts, flash inflation and unemployment reports are due from Germany later in the day, headlining a busy day for the European economic news.

Eurozone economic sentiment survey results are due. The economic confidence index is forecast to rise to 81 in July from 75.7 in the previous month.

Eurostat is set to release euro area unemployment data for June. The jobless rate is forecast to rise to 7.7 percent in June from 7.4 percent in May.

Across the Atlantic, trading may be impacted by reaction to the weekly jobless claims report as well as a preliminary reading on GDP in the second quarter.

U.S. stocks rose overnight as a number of big-name companies reported better than expected quarterly results, tech leaders testified before Congress and the Fed repeated a pledge to use its "full range of tools" to support the economy after keeping rate near zero, as expected.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.6 percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rallied 1.4 percent and the S&P 500 advanced 1.2 percent.

European markets closed nearly flat on Wednesday as investors parsed through a deluge of earnings reports and fretted over the coronavirus spread.

The pan European Stoxx 600 edged down 0.1 percent. The German DAX slipped 0.1 percent, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 finished marginally higher and France's CAC 40 index rose 0.6 percent.