European Shares Poised For Firm Start

European stocks look set to open a tad higher on Monday despite renewed concerns about the slow pace of vaccinations and the new coronavirus strain spread.

Asian markets are climbing along with U.S. stock futures as some of the concerns over volatile trading receded and the People’s Bank of China injected funds in an effort to avoid a liquidity squeeze.

In economic news, data showed factory activity across much of Asia continued to hold up in January even as Japan saw factory activity slip back into contraction.

Similarly, two surveys showed factory activity in China slowed slightly in the month.

Factory Purchasing Managers’ survey results and unemployment reports are due from euro area later in the session, headlining a busy day for the European economic news.

Destatis is slated to issue Germany’s retail sales data for December. Economists expect sales to fall 2.6 percent month-on-month, in contrast to a 1.9 percent rise in November.

Across the Atlantic, the Labor Department’s closely watched monthly jobs report is likely to attract attention this week along with reports on manufacturing and service sector activity, factory orders and the U.S. trade deficit.

The dollar edged lower and yields on 10-year Treasuries ticked higher after 10 Republican senators proposed an alternative plan for Covid-19 stimulus costing about $600 billion. Gold and oil are seeing modest gains.

U.S. stocks tumbled on Friday as extreme volatility in a batch of small, heavily shorted companies such as GameStop, AMC Entertainment and Blackberry raised broader concerns about a bubble in a market.

Investor sentiment was also dented by news that Johnson & Johnson’s (JNJ) one-dose coronavirus vaccine appears to be less potent against variants.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 2 percent and the S&P 500 shed 1.9 percent to book their worst month of losses since October, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gave up 2 percent.

European markets fell sharply on Friday amid lingering concerns over tight liquidity in China and the slow pace of vaccination in the euro area.

The pan European Stoxx 600 plunged 1.9 percent. The German DAX lost 1.7 percent, France’s CAC 40 index fell 2 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 dropped 1.8 percent.