European Shares Poised For Mixed Open

(RTTNews) - European stocks are seen opening on a mixed note Monday, with technology stocks likely to be in focus as investors eye comments from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at the CES 2025 in Las Vegas later today. Artificial intelligence is expected to be the hot topic of the show.

Asian stocks were mixed, with South Korea's Kospi average rallying nearly 2 percent after a court dismissed an appeal by lawyers of Yoon Suk Yeol against an arrest warrant for the impeached president.

Japan's Nikkei was down about 1.5 percent on the opening day of trading for the new year.

Chinese and Hong Kong markets were subdued as U.S.-China trade tensions and uncertainty about stimulus policies overshadowed positive data showing that China's services activity expanded at the fastest pace in seven months in December.

The dollar was mixed against major currencies after positive U.S. House Speaker election results.

China's yuan hit a 16-month low, defying the central bank's persistently stronger guidance and assurances that it will keep the currency stable.

Oil prices dipped slightly but hovered at their highest since October.

Gold ticked lower as investors await more U.S. economic data this week for additional clues to the Fed's rate outlook.

The U.S. Labour Department's closely watched monthly jobs report is likely to be in the spotlight this week, along with reports on service sector activity and consumer sentiment as well as the release of minutes of the latest Fed meeting.

Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook will speak at a conference on law and microeconomics at the University of Michigan after Tom Barkin, the Richmond Fed President, said on Friday he believes the interest rate level remains restrictive enough to lower inflation in 2025.

Closer home, German inflation data, Eurozone Sentix Investor Confidence survey results and Eurozone final Composite PMI numbers may garner some attentional later in the day.

U.S. stocks closed sharply higher on Friday after a shaky start to the new year. Shares of major tech companies surged amid expectations that they would benefit from continued spending on artificial intelligence.

Bond yields eased slightly as new data showed U.S. manufacturing activity contracted at a slower rate in December.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.8 percent and the S&P 500 surged 1.3 percent to snap a five-day losing streak while the Dow added 0.8 percent.

European stocks closed on a sluggish note Friday at the end of a holiday-shortened week. Luxury, auto and mining stocks led losses after reports emerged that China would sharply increase funding from ultra-long treasury bonds in 2025.

The pan European STOXX 600 declined half a percent. The German DAX shed 0.6 percent, the U.K.'s FTST 100 dipped 0.4 percent and France's CAC 40 gave up 1.5 percent.