European Shares Seen Up Ahead Of Central Bank Meetings

(RTTNews) - European stocks may open higher on Monday after Wall Street returned to record heights Friday on optimism about the outlook for earnings.

Asian markets traded mixed, with Chinese and Hong Kong stocks falling sharply to hit multi-year lows as China kept its loan prime rates unchanged.

Japanese shares led regional gains as a two-day policy meeting of the Bank of Japan gets underway today.

The central bank is overwhelmingly forecast to leave its settings unchanged while announcing its decision on Tuesday.

The dollar ticked lower ahead of upcoming central bank decisions in Japan and Europe, the release of the Federal Reserve's preferred PCE price index and U.S. Q4 GDP figures, and key earnings results from technology companies like Intel, IBM Corp. and Netflix.

The European Central Bank's policy meeting on Thursday will be closely watched, given recent hawkish commentary from top officials.

Market analysts remain skeptical of the ECB's inflation outlook and anticipate multiple cuts throughout the year.

The Bank of Canada and Norges Bank meetings this week have no expectations of any change, but Turkey's central bank could deliver the final hike of its cycle.

U.S. stocks rose sharply to return to record heights on Friday, reflecting continued strength among tech stocks as new data showed a significant improvement in U.S. consumer sentiment and continued decreases in both year-ahead and long-run inflation expectations.

The Dow and the S&P 500 climbed 1.1 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively to set new record closing highs, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 1.7 percent to reach its best closing level in two years.

European stocks closed slightly lower on Friday as German and British economic data disappointed, and ECB President Christine Lagarde refrained from commenting on monetary policy during her commentary on the economic outlook.

The pan European STOXX 600 declined 0.3 percent. The German DAX ended flat with a negative bias and France's CAC 40 eased 0.4 percent while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 finished marginally higher.