Europe seen higher as markets eye earnings

European markets are expected to open higher Wednesday ahead of a slew of earnings from European companies that may have benefited from the weaker euro.

Earnings will be in focus for markets Wednesday with results coming from troubled supermarket Tesco, U.K. banking group TSB and healthcare company Roche. Other earnings include Petrobras, Heineken, BHP Billiton, Michelin and Travis Perkins.

Elsewhere, Greece remains in the headlines Wednesday. Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said on Tuesday that he's confident Greece would reach a deal with its international lenders although this may not happen in the upcoming meeting of euro zone finance ministers on April 24, he told reporters in Athens, Reuters said Tuesday.

Markets will keep an eye on a meeting between Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday.

In other news, U.S. crude futures extended declines on Wednesday following an announcement by Saudi Arabia on Tuesday that it was ending a month-long campaign of air strikes against the Houthi rebels who seized large areas of Yemen. Saudi said it would back a political solution to bring peace to its war-ravaged neighbor, Reuters reported.

In U.K. election news, Britain's opposition Labour Party holds a 2 percentage point lead over David Cameron's Conservatives, pollster TNS said on Tuesday, showing that neither of the main parties had secured "a decisive bounce after the (television) debates and manifesto launches," Jamie Willard, Director at TNS UK, said on TNS' website.

Data releases Wednesday include Italian industrial and retail sales and euro zone consumer confidence.