Chinese shares recovered on Thursday, after Shanghai index fell a surprising 3% yesterday, rekindling fears of instability in Chinese markets. Shanghai rose 0.24% today. China's CSI 300 index rose 0.44%. Other Asian markets were down on Thursday as China's fall yesterday spooked investors. Japan's Nikkei is down 0.77%. Korea's KOSPI is down 1%. Australian shares rose however, as they move more in tandem with China's, S&P\ASX 200 index is up 0.27%.

U.S. markets ended yesterday on a low note on the back of weakness in third quarter's earnings and China's slump. Dow Jones ended the day down 0.28%. S&P 500 was down 0.58%. NASDAQ was down a heavy 0.84%.

Oil futures rose, with Brent December futures up 20 cents, or 0.42% to $48.12 a barrel. U.S. crude futures rose 23 cents, or 0.51% to $45.44 a barrel.

Dollar and Euro were largely unchanged as investors wait for ECB meeting today. Dollar index (DXY) was flat at 95.06. Against Euro the dollar was little changed at 1.1335. Dollar fell slightly against Sterling to 1.5422.

Euro was flat against Sterling at 0.7349. It was down against Yen at 135.66.

Commodity-linked currencies steadied after heavy losses yesterday due to China. Canadian dollar traded at C$1.3123 per U.S. dollar. Australian dollar was at two-week low, trading at $0.7201.  

Spot gold is down $1.40, or 0.12% to $1,166.20 an ounce. Silver is flat at $15.70 an ounce.

Investors will be waiting for an array of indicators. Aside from the ECB meeting, Euro traders will have their eyes on Spanish unemployment rate survey, expected to come at 21.9%. Coming lower than that will push Euro up.

From Britain, retail sales for September are expected to grow 0.3% m\m, higher than August's 0.2% growth, falling short of expectations will be a shortening sign for traders.

From the U.S., the weekly unemployment claims report is released today, forecast to come at 266K. Unemployment claims revisited a 42-year low the previous week at 255K. Remaining below 300K will show that jobs market is consolidating and could influence whether the Fed will raise rates this month.