BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - European stocks are seen opening largely unchanged on Monday as investors pause for breath after strong gains in the previous session.
Economic optimism prevails as New York City starts to reopen today in the first phase of reopening after three months of hardship.
Shopping malls and places of worship across India, barring those in states like Maharashtra and Goa, have been opened to people from today, despite the country becoming the fifth worst-hit nation by the deadly virus in the world.
New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that all coronavirus measures in the country will be lifted from Tuesday, barring border closure restrictions.
Senior Chinese health officials defended their country's response to the coronavirus pandemic while a U.S. senator accused Beijing of trying to block the development of a vaccine in the West.
ECB President Christine Lagarde attends a European Parliament hearing today and she may offer more insights into last week's larger-than-expected increase in emergency bond buying stimulus program.
The U.S. central bank's monetary policy announcement is due on Wednesday, with investors waiting to hear the Fed's views on the economic outlook in the wake of Friday's robust data and the resulting rise in U.S. Treasury yields.
The OECD releases its economic outlook Wednesday, while euro area finance ministers will meet Thursday to discuss the EU's recovery package.
Elsewhere in Japan, the country's parliament will begin deliberating a second supplementary budget to fund part of a fresh $1.1 trillion stimulus package.
Government data released earlier today showed that Japan's economy is still in recession but contracted at a smaller rate than initially estimated for the first quarter.
Industrial production data from Germany and investor confidence figures from euro area are due later in the session, headlining a light day for the European economic news.
Asian markets remain mostly higher and the dollar extended its recent slump, while oil extended recent gains after OPEC agreed to a one-month extension of its record oil-production cuts.
U.S. stocks soared on Friday after a government report showed an unexpected jump in employment in the month of May, raising optimism about a quick economic recovery.
Non-farm payroll employment jumped by 2.51 million jobs in May after plummeting by a revised 20.69 million jobs in April, reflecting a limited resumption of economic activity. The jobless rate dropped to 13.3 percent.
Economists had been expecting the loss of another 8.0 million jobs and a spike in the unemployment rate to near 20 percent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average spiked 3.2 percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rallied 2.1 percent and the S&P 500 added 2.6 percent.
European markets ended on an upbeat note Friday after the ECB announced a bigger-than-expected expansion of its stimulus program and the U.S. jobs report surprised almost everyone.
The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 2.5 percent. The German DAX surged 3.4 percent, France's CAC 40 index climbed 3.7 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 jumped 2.3 percent.
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