European and US futures are trading lower on the second last day of the week as traders and investors digest the current earnings' season while keeping a close eye on the economic data, which is very much not going to shape the monetary policy of central banks, but it could also provide a massive tailwind for the equity markets in the US and in Europe, which they desperately need.

Earlier today, in Europe, we had a mixed bag of earnings from a number of major players. Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) and Barclays (NYSE:BCS) produced decent earnings numbers. For instance...