European Shares Seen Tad Lower At Open

(RTTNews) - European stocks are seen opening a tad lower on Monday as investors assess new trade developments and look forward to the two-day E.U.-China summit scheduled to take place in Beijing beginning on July 24th to discuss the future of the bilateral relationship and trade.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has called Aug. 1 the "hard deadline" for countries to start paying tariffs, adding that "nothing stops countries from talking to us after August 1."

He also said the U.S.-EU trade deal is coming soon. After delaying retaliatory tariffs against the U.S., European Union envoys will meet again this week to formulate a plan for measures to respond to a possible no-deal scenario.

Meanwhile, the European Central Bank meets this week, with the central bank expected to hold interest rates for the first time in almost a year amid lingering concerns over the potential impact of higher U.S. tariffs on the eurozone economy.

U.S. stock futures were moving higher ahead of a busy week of earnings, housing market and durable goods orders data, and comments from central bankers, including Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Governor Michelle Bowman at a banking conference.

After big U.S. banks and Netflix reported quarterly earnings last week, Tesla and Google parent Alphabet are set to unveil their earnings results on Wednesday, followed by Intel on Thursday.

Asian markets were mostly higher as China left benchmark lending rates unchanged, as expected, and reports suggested that U.S. President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping might meet ahead of the October APEC summit.

The yen held steady as Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's ruling coalition failed to secure a majority in the 248-seat upper house in a crucial parliamentary election.

Despite the setback, Ishiba announced he has no intention to step down, pledging to redouble efforts on economic diplomacy.

Gold ticked higher to hover around $3,360 an ounce as investors absorb mixed signals from Federal Reserve officials regarding potential interest-rate cuts.

Oil prices were marginally higher as investors weighed the prospect of increased supply from OPEC+ against new sanctions on Russia.

U.S. stocks ended narrowly mixed on Friday after reports emerged that President Donald Trump is demanding a minimum tariff of between 15 percent and 20 percent in any deal with the EU irrespective even if a trade deal is arrived at.

Investors also reacted to upbeat economic data and Netflix's unimpressive revenue forecast. Data showed U.S. consumer sentiment rose to a five-month high in early July as expectations about the economy and inflation continued to improve.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite inched up marginally to reach a new record closing high while the S&P 500 finished marginally lower and the Dow eased 0.3 percent.

European stocks ended mixed on Friday as lingering trade tensions offset some fairly strong earnings updates.

The pan European STOXX 600 ended flat with a negative bias. The German DAX dipped 0.3 percent, while France's CAC 40 finished marginally higher and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 added 0.2 percent.