The muted start to the week for Europe echoes similar sentiment elsewhere; stocks in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Monday trade after official data showed that China’s industrial profits for May slowed.
Data released Sunday by China’s National Bureau of Statistics showed profits at China’s industrial firms rose 36.4% in May as compared with a year earlier. That was a slowdown from the 57% year-on-year growth posted in April.
Meanwhile, futures contracts tied to the major U.S. stock indexes rose modestly early Monday morning after the S&P 500 notched its best week since February, as well as a new record, on Friday.
Futures tied to the S&P 500 hovered above the flatline and those linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 14 points. Nasdaq 100 futures also traded mildly higher.
Stocks posted their best week in months on Friday as investors grew more relaxed about inflation, seeing the current price acceleration in the U.S. not as a sustained economic threat, but as a temporary uptick.
The World Health Organization on Friday urged fully vaccinated people to continue to wear masks as the highly contagious delta variant of Covid-19 spreads rapidly throughout the globe, leading many countries to re-impose tighter restrictions.
In the U.K. Monday, new Health Secretary Sajid Javid will update lawmakers on when the U.K. can expect to ease Covid-19 measures further. Covid restrictions are currently due to end on July 19, the date already having been extended due to the spread of the delta variant.
In corporate news, Daimler is on track to spin off its truck unit by the end of the year, its Chief Financial Officer Harald Wilhelm told German publication Automobilwoche in a report published Sunday.
Meanwhile Dutch insurer NN Group announced Sunday that it had offered to acquire some of MetLife’s businesses in Europe, though the size of the offer and the specific businesses targeted remain undisclosed.
Oil prices briefly notched highs last seen in October 2018 on Monday ahead of the OPEC+ meeting this week and as the U.S. and Iran remain at odds over the revival of the nuclear deal, halting an expected spike in Iranian exports.
Brent crude had slipped back slightly by around 6:40 a.m. London time to trade at $76.08 per barrel while U.S. crude futures inched down to $74.03.
There are no major earnings or data releases in Europe on Monday.
