European markets have opened in the green today, shrugging off weak Asian cues and embracing some upbeat earnings updates from Bayerische Motoren Werke AG and other blue-chip European companies.

Meanwhile, the NIESR indicated that it expects the UK economy to grow 3% in 2014, an upward revision from the previous growth estimate of 2.9%. Later today, market participants await UK Markit services PMI data which is expected to show a marginal improvement in July. Additionally, traders will look forward to Eurozone retail sales and services PMI across Europe and the US for further direction.

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