European Shares Seen Tad Higher At Open

(RTTNews) - European stocks may open a tad higher on Monday, after having suffered heavy losses in the previous session amid heightened political uncertainty in Europe.

Asian markets traded mostly lower as a slew of top-tier economic data from China painted a sluggish picture of the economy.

China's retail sales grew at a faster-than-expected pace in May, while industrial output lagged expectations, fixed asset investment missed estimates and new home prices declined at the fastest pace in nearly 10 years, adding pressure on Beijing to shore up growth.

Investors also fretted about a wider Middle East war after the Israeli military warned that intensified cross-border fire from Lebanon's Hezbollah terror group into Israel could trigger serious escalation.

Japan's Nikkei index fell more than 2 percent as investors waited to hear details of the Bank of Japan's next tightening steps.

The dollar was firm in Asian trading, while oil and gold were seeing modest losses.

The European economic calendar remains light, with final inflation data from Italy and economic forecast from Switzerland awaited later in the day.

In the U.S., reports on retail sales, industrial production, housing starts and existing home sales are awaited this week.

The holiday-shortened week will also see earnings from prominent companies such as IT and consulting services firm Accenture and supermarket chain Kroger.

Central bank meetings in Australia, Norway and the U.K. will be in focus this week, with all central banks expected to hold rates steady.

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) might announce another rate cut, given the recent strength of the Swiss franc.

U.S. stocks ended narrowly mixed on Friday but posted strong weekly gains on growing hopes for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates in September.

In economic releases, U.S. import prices fell for the first time in five months in May and year-ahead inflation expectations were unchanged at 3.3 percent in June while consumer sentiment dropped to a seven-month low in June, separate reports showed.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite inched up 0.1 percent to reach a record closing high while the S&P 500 finished marginally lower and the Dow eased 0.2 percent.

European stocks tumbled on Friday, with political tensions in Europe and concerns over potential retaliation from China on tariffs weighing on sentiment.

The pan European STOXX 600 gave up 1 percent. The German DAX lost 1.4 percent, France's CAC 40 plunged 2.7 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 dipped 0.2 percent.