European stocks may open slightly higher on Monday as investors digest a raft of economic data from China.
China's GDP growth slowed to 6.7 percent in the second quarter, its slowest pace since 2016. That matched forecasts but was a tad lower than 6.8 percent in the first quarter of 2018.
Retail sales numbers for June exceeded expectations and fixed asset investment grew in line with expectations while industrial output growth came in shy of forecasts.
Asian markets are mostly lower in thin trade, with Japanese markets closed for a public holiday.
The dollar rose slightly against the yen and held flat against the euro as investors await Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's semi-annual congressional testimonies on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The media spotlight is also likely to be on President Donald Trump's highly anticipated meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, later today.
Oil prices dipped in Asian trade as fears of supply disruptions eased and Libyan ports resumed export activities.
The British pound rose against the dollar after fluctuating on Friday in reaction to Trump's Brexit comments.
Property tracking website Rightmove said earlier today that the average asking price for a house in the United Kingdom fell 0.1 percent sequentially in July.
On a yearly basis, house prices were up 1.4 percent - slowing from 1.7 percent in the previous month.
U.S. stocks finished slightly higher on Friday as investors digested mixed earnings results from financial giants JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo.
While the Fed's semi-annual monetary policy to Congress offered few surprises, a gauge of consumer sentiment dipped in July due to tariff concerns.
The Dow rose 0.4 percent, the S&P 500 inched up 0.1 percent to reach its best closing level in five months and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained marginally to hit a fresh record high.
European markets also finished in positive territory on Friday as investors brushed aside trade worries and stayed focused on the earnings season.
The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index gained 0.2 percent. The German DAX index and France's CAC 40 index both rose by 0.4 percent while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 edged up 0.1 percent.
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