European stocks are seen opening higher on Monday, extending Friday's strong gains, as better-than-expected U.S. employment data as well as news that Greece is committed to reforms to comply with bailout terms buoy risk-taking.
Greece's international creditors said the embattled euro area member is committed to the planned budget cuts and that their discussions with the Greek authorities will continue in September.
"The Greek authorities are committed to proceeding with determination in their work over the next month," the troika, consisting of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, said in a joint statement on Sunday after concluding a review visit. Greece has pledged a series of economic reforms and spending cuts worth EUR 11 billion for 2013 and 2014 to keep the bailout-deal afloat.
Separately, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has inched closer to asking for an EU bailout for his country to ease the nation's deepening financial crisis, but said he needed first to know the details and conditions attached to it.
Making a similar gesture, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said on Sunday that Italy needs more of moral support from Germany, not financial. In an interview with German magazine Der Spiegel, he warned Europe that the region is facing the threat of a psychological disintegration and urged all leaders to become more independent from their parliaments.
Asian stock markets are rising for the first time in four sessions, with key benchmark indexes in Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea climbing about 2 percent each, boosted by Friday's strong U.S. jobs report.
In corporate news, UniCredit S.p.A. reported a near 67 percent plunge in second-quarter profit as the Italian banking giant incurred higher loan-loss provisions and posted lower revenues amid falling commercial loan demand and interest rate pressures.
United Internet AG announced that Sedo Holding AG, a listed company in which it holds a 79.45 percent shareholding, had recognized non-cash-effective extraordinary impairment charges for goodwill of EUR 60.3 million.
Wilex AG said that its Supervisory Board has approved to increase the company's share capital by up to EUR 6.7 million from EUR 24.81 million to up to EUR 31.58 million by way of a rights offering.
ASML Holding NV announced that TSMC has joined its Customer Co-Investment Program for innovation, committing to invest EUR 276 million in research and development of next generation lithography technologies over the next five years as well as EUR 838 million for a 5 percent ASML equity stake.
British retailer Marks & Spencer Group Plc is being viewed by bankers as a potential bid target, the Sunday Telegraph reported. The firm, which has seen a fall in its stock price in the past few years, may receive bids worth around 6 billion pounds.
Novartis AG and the University of Pennsylvania have entered into an exclusive global collaboration to research, develop and commercialize targeted chimeric antigen receptor immunotherapies for the treatment of cancers.
European stocks rebounded from the previous session's losses on Friday, with banks leading the rally, after data showed a larger than expected increase in U.S. non-farm payroll employment for July.
The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks jumped 4.8 percent and the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, advanced 2.3 percent. Around Europe, Switzerland's SMI, the U.K.'s FTSE 100, the German DAX and France's CAC 40 rose between 0.9 percent and 4.4 percent.
U.S. stocks soared on Friday, thanks to an encouraging report on services sector activity and better-than-expected jobs data. The Dow jumped 1.7 percent to a three-month high, the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 2 percent and the S&P 500 added 1.9 percent.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com