Europe open: Stocks dip ahead of key week for trade talks, Brexit
Stocks have begun the morning trading slightly lower ahead of an extraordinarily busy week in global capital markets, including a second round of trade talks between the US and China, quarterly earnings updates from a slew of American technology giants and a potentially key week on the Brexit front.
"Such a busy week will be a key test of the resilience of the risk appetite seen over the past month. Has this been one of the shortest bear markets in history, or merely a pause before a new one gets underway?," said IG's Chris Beauchamp.
As of 1030 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was down by 0.35% or 1.24 points at 356.60, alongside a dip of 0.23% or 25.74 points to 11,256.21 for the German Dax and a drop of 0.46% or 91.92 points to 19,718.55 on the FTSE Mibtel.
Strategists at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch were more cautious. In a research note entitled "take cover", they told clients that a US-China deal and a 'dovish' Fed were already "consensus" or priced into stocks, with only improved data out of China left to drive further upside, but that they said was a story for the second quarter.
In the meantime, "markets may correct", they said.
Nevertheless, for Monday at least investor angst was being partially offset by news at the weekend of a temporary resolution of the partial US government shutdown.
In parallel, front month Brent crude oil futures were down by 1.7% to $60.63 a barrel on the ICE, in the wake of weekly data published last Friday that revealed an unexpected rise in the number of onshore oil rigs in the States.
In other economic news, the European Central Bank reported that the annual rate of growth in euro area money supply increased from 3.7% for November to 4.1% in December (consensus: 3.8%).
Nevertheless, the dip in the annual rate of growth of M1, or so-called 'narrow' money supply, meant the "overall message" from Monday's report was that economic growth in the Eurozone was slowing, said Pantheon Macroeconomics's Claus Vistesen.
For later in the day, ECB chief, Mario Draghi, was set to speak before the European parliament, at 1400 GMT.