Europe open: Stocks move a tad higher ahead of ECB's Lagarde and US earnings

Stocks across the Continent were slightly higher in early trades, tracking overnight gains on the US S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite.

As Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK put it: "It's been a slow start to the week for European stocks with little in the way of volume or direction, and it looks set to be a similar pattern today."

As of 0959 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was up by 0.21% to 436.68, alongside a 0.46% advance for the Cac-40 to 6,212.82, while the Dax was hugging the flatline and barely changed at 15,237.21.

In the background, investors were waiting for the US quarterly corporate earnings season to get underway while they waited for European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde, who was due to appear at a Reuters Newsmaker event.

At the sector level, technology issues were faring best within the Stoxx 600, with shares of software maker SAP topping the leaderboard.

Luxury stocks were also wanted, including the likes of Christian Dior and LVMH.

Going the other way, the Stoxx 600 Telecommunications gauge was down 0.63%, dragged down by Telefonica Deutschland, Elisa Oyj and Telefon AB LM Ericsson.

Tesco was another top faller following the release of its latest full-year numbers.