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 Wall Street looked set for modest opening gains, according to index
futures. Earlier, Asian shares edged lower as investors looked to
Chinese economic data due late this week which is expected to show
the world's second-largest economy is still sluggish.
Crude oil prices fell towards their lowest levels of the year after
OPEC failed to agree on output targets that could cut a global glut.
Investors are caught between the European Central Bank's moves last
week to stimulate growth and inflation, which disappointed many, and
next week's U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting, at which interest
rates are expected to rise for the first time since 2006.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 stocks index rose 1.5
percent, boosted by healthcare stocks and as a weaker euro lifted
exporters. Germany's exporter-driven DAX added 2.2 percent. European
shares closed at three-week lows on Friday after the euro soared in
reaction to Thursday's ECB decision.
A notable faller on Monday was Sweden's Electrolux, down 11 percent
after its $3.3 billion deal to buy General Electric's appliance
business fell through.
A 2 percent gain on Wall Street on Friday lifted European equity
investors' spirits. That followed data showing 211,000 new U.S. jobs
were created in November, which cemented already firm expectations
the Fed would raise interest rates on Dec. 16 and was perceived as a
sign of the U.S. economy's strength.
Asian investors worried about Chinese trade date due on Tuesday,
inflation the following day, and industrial output and retail sales
figures on Saturday.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped
0.3 percent. Japan's Nikkei closed 1 percent higher, thanks to a
weaker yen, having lost 2.2 percent on Friday.
In China, the CSI300 index of the largest listed companies in
Shanghai and Shenzhen rose 0.3 percent, as did the Shanghai
Composite.
In currency markets, the dollar index, which measures the greenback
against a basket of currencies, rose 0.6 percent. The euro,
which took its biggest daily gain in seven years on Thursday on
disappointment at the ECB's easing package, fell 0.8 percent to
$1.0796.
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ECB President Mario Draghi, in a speech in New York on Friday, said
more stimulus could be deployed if necessary.
"Draghi's correctively dovish speech emphasized that the ECB can do
more, attempting to put the ECB decision in a broader easing
context," Mizuho's head of euro rates strategy Peter Chatwell, said
in a note to clients.
The yen fell 0.3 percent to 123.45 per dollar. New Zealand's dollar
fell 1.2 percent against its U.S. equivalent before a central bank
meeting on Thursday at which interest rate cuts are on the table.
OIL DIPS
Brent crude oil fell 45 cents to $42.55 a barrel, not far from
its 2015 low of $42.23 hit in August.
Dollar strength helped knock gold off a three-week high, trading at
$1,081.30, having risen as far as $1,088.70 on Friday.
Euro zone government bond yields, which posted their biggest daily
gain in five years at short maturities on Thursday, fell on Monday
as the prospect of weaker oil prices weighed on inflation
expectations.
Benchmark German 10-year yields dropped 7.2 basis points to 0.62
percent while two-year yields fell 1.4 bps to just above -0.3
percent.
(Additional reporting by Wayne Cole in Sydney and Sudip Kar-Gupta
and John Geddie in London; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
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