BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - European stocks are seen opening a tad higher on Monday as investor focus shifts to upcoming high-level U.S.-Iran talks in Qatar, the release of U.S. jobs data and the ECB's Sintra Forum, where major governors, including Fed Chair Kevin Warsh and ECB President Lagarde will participate.
After two nights of renewed hostilities, the United States and Iran have agreed to halt military strikes against each other and meet on Tuesday in Doha, Qatar, to resolve tensions over the Strait of Hormuz.
Earlier, Iran had attacked commercial vessels in the Gulf, prompting U.S. strikes on Iran's air defense sites, drone facilities and mine-laying capabilities.
Iran retaliated with strikes on U.S. bases in Bahrain and Kuwait before both sides agreed to halt strikes and meet this week.
Elsewhere, Hezbollah's leader on Saturday pilloried the Israel-Lebanon framework agreement as 'null and void' and warned its implementation would trigger civil war.
The Israeli military has targeted and destroyed Hezbollah's underground infrastructure in southern Lebanon.
In economic releases, the U.S. ISM manufacturing PMI and the June U.S. jobs report will be in the spotlight this week ahead of the U.S. Independence Day holiday on Friday. Major economies worldwide will release their June PMI data in quick succession this week.
The European Central Bank (ECB) will host its highly anticipated Forum on Central Banking in Sintra, Portugal, from June 29 to July 1, where Kevin Warsh will make his first international appearance as Fed Chair.
ECB President Christine Lagarde, BOE Governor Andrew Bailey and BOC Governor Tiff Macklem will also participate in the event and deliver speeches.
Asian markets were mixed, with semiconductor and AI-related stocks coming under selling pressure in Japan and South Korea.
The U.S. dollar was on the back foot but headed for its biggest monthly gain in nearly a year due to renewed Gulf tensions and uncertainty over the Federal Reserve's monetary policy.
Gold was down nearly 1 percent near $4,050 an ounce while Brent crude prices were little changed below $72 a barrel, after having hit a four-month low last week.
U.S. stocks ended off their day's lows on Friday as lower oil prices on signs of improving shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz offset concerns over artificial intelligence (AI) spending and escalating memory and storage costs.
Investor sentiment was weighed down by Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX seeing its valuation drop and reports suggesting that Open AI, the maker of ChatGPT, was leaning toward holding off its highly anticipated IPO until next year.
The Dow and the S&P 500 both finished marginally lower while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.2 percent due to changing expectations around U.S. monetary policy.
European stocks closed firmly lower on Friday as tech stocks mirrored global weakness.
The pan European Stoxx 600 fell 0.7 percent. The German DAX lost 1.3 percent, France's CAC 40 shed 0.6 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 eased 0.2 percent.
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