Europe open: Single currency slips below 1.06 as polls show Melenchon gaining in polls
Stocks began the holiday-shortened week higher despite the latest poll results showing French far-Left candidate Jean Luc Melenchon was fast gaining support and following an apparently uneventful summit between US president Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart.
As of 0838 GMT the benchmark Stoxx 600 was higher by 0.05% or 0.20 points at 381.46, while Germany's Dax was up by 0.07% or 8.57 points to 12,233.63 and the French Cac fell back 0.19% to 20,261.82.
In parallel, euro/dollar was down 0.07% at 1.0584.
A poll from Kantar Sofres published on Sunday showed centrist Emmanuelle Macron and far-Right leader Marine Le pen tied for first place ahead of the 23 April first round of voting in the country's presidential elections.
Each one now had 24% of the vote, but Melenchon was now in third place at 18% and one point ahead of centre-right rival Francois Fillon at 17%.
Commenting on the situation in markets at the start of the day, Accendo Markets analyst Henry Croft said: "Calls for a positive open come as investors follow an overnight lead from Asian markets and dial back reactionary safe-haven bets to Friday’s US air-strikes in Syria and a disappointing US non-farm payrolls print.
"This suggests bullish appetite is alive and well following the conclusion of a seemingly successful two-day Sino-US summit and ahead of key UK, US and Chinese inflation prints this week. Despite safe-haven flight, geopolitical risk remains at the fore with regional tensions rising in Syria and the Korean peninsula, with a US navy contingent moving towards the latter."
In remarks made after their summit, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said: "[we] got deeply acquainted, established a kind of trust and built an initial working relationship and friendship."
A Chinese envoy was reportedly to make his way to South Korea to discuss the situation with both countries' neighbour to the north.
Before the opening bell, France's central bank cut its forecast for the rate of growth in gross domestic product in the first quarter by one tenth of a percentage point to 0.3% quarter-on-quarter.
Nevertheless, the economy was still seen expanding by 1.3% in 2017.
Drugmakers in the crosshairs
German pharma outfit Stada's shares are rocketing following news it has accepted a buy-out offer from US private equity outfits Bain Capital and Cinven of €66 per share, valuing it at €5.32bn.
Stock in Daimler was unchanged despite a report the car-maker was offering voluntary redundancies to workers at its Mercedes Benz truck unit as part of its efforts to cut annual costs by €400m.
Italy's finance minister urged the European Central Bank to give the country's lender a "reasonable" amount of time to to clean bad loands on their balance sheets.