European stocks are set to open on a positive note Monday, encouraged by higher commodity prices and positive sentiment in Asia.
Asian stocks outside of Japan, South Korea and Indonesia edged higher Monday ahead of the Easter holiday later this week, helped by stronger earnings from Chinese companies and a deal to provide backstop loans for Greece in conjunction with the International Monetary Fund.
While South Korea's KOSPI ended down 0.34%, retracing early losses, Japan's Nikkei closed on a flat note with a negative bias on profit taking.
Crude oil futures for May delivery rose by about 0.7% in Asian trading today after declining 97 cents, or 1.2% a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange last week. The U.S dollar has slipped against the euro and traders are looking forward to the U.S jobs report for March due later this week for clues on consumer spending.
In Europe, traders will digest consumer sentiment data from the Eurozone and mortgage approvals statistics from the U.K., due later in the session.
On Wall Street, stocks ended on a mixed note Friday after seeing their intra-day gains evaporate for a second straight session. Despite solid readings on fourth quarter GDP and consumer sentiment, the mood was quite subdued amid concerns about the debt crisis in Greece and speculation about rising tensions between North and South Korea.
The major averages ended the session mixed, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq closing just below the unchanged line, while the Dow and the S&P 500 edged up around 0.1% each. However, the Dow futures are now moving up by 34 points pointing towards an extremely positive opening on Wall Street Monday morning.
In domestic corporate news, a fresh four-day strike called by the cabin crew of British Airways over a dispute on planned pay and job cuts began on Saturday, forcing the airlines to cancel almost a hundred of its flights from Heathrow airport.
European oil company Royal Dutch Shell Plc said Sunday that it agreed to sell its downstream business in New Zealand to a consortium of Infratil and the state owned Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation, for US$492 million to focus on oil and gas production.
French engineering group Alstom SA and electric equipment firm Schneider Electric SA won European Union approval to jointly purchase Areva SA's power transmission and distribution unit.
Italian carmaker Fiat SpA would boost its stake in Chrysler Group LLC to 35 percent within 24 months, Fiat's chief executive officer Sergio Marchionne said.
The U.K. government is considering plans to offload its stakes in Lloyds Banking Group Plc and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc after the general election, The Times reported.
The U.K. financial services sector will record strong growth in the next three months after a stable performance this quarter, a survey of industry executives has suggested. The Confederation of British Industry / PricewaterhouseCoopers financial services survey revealed that a balance of 48% of firms expect a rise in business volumes in the next three months, which is the most optimistic balance since March 2006.
The European markets fell on Friday, as weakness in pharmaceutical and energy stocks overshadowed the news of endorsement of a Franco-German proposal by European Union leaders to provide aid package to Greece to help tackle its huge fiscal deficit.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of pan-European blue chips closed 0.54% lower, while the narrower DJ Stoxx 50 index fell 0.59%. Around Europe, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index dropped 0.43%, France's CAC 40 index slipped 0.29% and Germany's DAX index fell 0.21%.
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