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POSITIVE START

European shares have opened in the green on Thursday, shrugging off more air attacks in the Middle East, before the ECB rate decision later in the day.

The central bank is widely expected to raise rates by a quarter-point to 2.25%, an "insurance hike" as the Iran war lifts energy costs and stokes inflation.

The move has been well-telegraphed, with what comes next arguably more important for markets.

In the Middle East, the U.S. and Iran exchanged air attacks for a second day, although oil prices are steady, which appears to be helping European shares, along with a report from CNN that cited a diplomatic source who said talks between the two sides were still on track.

The STOXX 600 .STOXX is up 0.3%, while major bourses in London .FTSE, Paris .FCHI and Frankfurt .GDAXI are flat to up 0.4%.

Energy .SXEP, miners .SXPP and banks .SX7P are the top gainers, while telecoms .SXKP and real estate .SX86P underperform.

European software names are soft in the wake of Oracle's ORCL.N earnings after hours on Wednesday. The U.S. cloud software and infrastructure company reported slowing SaaS revenue growth in the quarter.

UBS Wealth Management also downgraded European IT from attractive to neutral, while Anthropic has also rolled out its new Fable model this week, its most powerful model it has ever made for public use.

SAP SAPG.DE, Nemetschek NEKG.DE, Capgemini CAPP.PA and Wolters Kluwer WLSNc.AS are all down between 4% and 5%.

Here's your opening snapshot:

(Samuel Indyk)

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EARLIER ON LIVE MARKETS:

EUROPE BEFORE THE BELL: NOT YOUR EVERYDAY CEASEFIRE (CLICK HERE)

TECH AND WAR JITTERS SAP CONFIDENCE (CLICK HERE)