London pre-open: Investors are all ears ahead of ECB's Draghi, Fed's Yellen

Will the European Central Bank pull the trigger on a new round of quantitative easing when it meets in December?

It is with exactly that question foremost in their minds that investors will be waiting on this afternoon's testimony by ECB president Mario Draghi before the European parliament.

Against that backdrop, the Footsie is being called to start the session about 10 points lower from Wednesday’s close of 6,297.20. The Shanghai Stiock Exchange's Composite index, meanwhile, has finished the Thursday session 0.48% lower to 3,632.90.

Speaking on CNBC on Tuesday evening ex-Monetary Policy Committee member Adam Posen said the ECB would not move again before the US Federal Reserve does so.

In parallel, Berlin's Council of Economic Experts have reportedly called on the ECB to consider trimming its asset purchase programme early in order to avoid unwanted results; that is to say, financial bubbles.

There is little in the way of economic data on today's agenda, save for October consumer price data in France and Germany, alonside September's numbers for euro area industrial production.

However, a raft of Fed speakers is expected to take to the podium throughout the day, including Fed chairwoman Janet Yellen herself, at 15:30 GMT.

Back in the UK, house price growth accelerated in October. The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors' monthly house price balance jumped to a reading of +49 from +44 in the month before (consensus: +45), close to August's 15-month high of +53.

Rolls Royce guides towards profits at lower end of forecast range

Aerospace and engineering firm Rolls-Royce said earnings for the year will be at the low end of guidance as it downgraded its expectations for next year and warned of a possible cut to the dividend. The company reaffirmed its 2015 guidance but said profit for the year is expected to be at the lower of its £1.33bn to £1.48bn range.

Luxury retailer Burberry posted a rise in first half pre-tax profit but warned that the market environment remains challenging. For the six months to the end of September, adjusted pre-tax profit rose to £153m from the same period last year, while revenue was unchanged at £1.1bn. Reported pre-tax profit was up 9% to £155m. In addition, the company said that since the start of the third quarter, comparable sales, although volatile, have improved overall relative to the second quarter.

Interim pre-tax profits at SAB Miller fell to $2.3bn from $2.82bn. Revenues at were also down to $9.9bn from $11.3bn. EBITA fell to $2.9bn from $3.2bn. “Continued depreciation of key operating currencies against the US dollar has had an adverse impact on our results on both a translational and transactional basis. The adverse translational foreign exchange impact on EBITA in the period was $497 million, with a further adverse transactional impact on margins,” the company said.

BHP may we weighed down by a report in The Guardian that the Brazilian government might slap a fine on the Anglo-Australian outfit for the "environmental catastrophe" after a tailings dam part-owned by the firm broke.