European and Asian stock markets rose Thursday as traders awaited more US inflation data and the European Central Bank’s latest decision on interest rates.

The dollar gained versus the euro and other main rivals.

An update on the US consumer price index is due Thursday, one day after official figures showed producer prices falling in the world’s biggest economy.

Together with recent weak US jobs numbers, analysts expect the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates before the end of the year.

Thursday’s data should provide further clues over by how much the Fed intends to reduce borrowing costs at its September meeting.

“A softer-than-expected set of numbers could fuel bets of a jumbo Fed cut next week to support a weakening jobs market,” noted Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissqu

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