Europe signals quiet start

European shares looked set to open broadly unchanged on Monday, in a quiet start to the week also due to a holiday closure of UK markets, just as debt ceiling talks in the US remain at a stalemate.

EuroSTOXX50 and DAX futures were both trading around parity. US contracts  pointed to a muted start on Wall Street, following Friday’s gains that saw the S&P 500 gain 1.9%, as US regional banks rallied and Apple soared following strong results.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned on Sunday that a failure by Congress to act on the debt ceiling could trigger a “constitutional crisis” and call into question the federal government’s creditworthiness.

Among data to watch is the US CPI on Wednesday. Any big surprise to the upside could put in question bets the Fed could even start cutting rates as soon as July. Eyes also on the Fed’s bank lending survey for Q1 due after the European market close.

On the European corporate news front it was rather quiet too. Postal group PostNL and pharmaceutical firm Almirall could move after both beat quarterly profit expectations.

(Danilo Masoni)