European Shares Poised For Weak Start As Treasuries Extend Fall

(RTTNews) - European stocks are seen opening broadly lower on Monday amid signs of escalating tensions in the Middle East and much uncertainty about the Federal Reserve's monetary path this year.

Yemen's Houthi rebel group vowed to counterattack after the United States and the United Kingdom struck 36 Houthi targets in 13 locations in Yemen last night.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to the Middle East later today, with stops planned in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Israel and the occupied West Bank.

Elsewhere, former U.S. President Donald Trump, who triggered a China trade war during his presidency, said he might impose a tariff on Chinese goods of more than 60 percent were he to win a second term in office.

Asian shares were broadly lower, Treasuries extended Friday's selloff and the dollar rose against its major rivals as a robust U.S. jobs report damped expectations of imminent interest-rate cuts.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell made it clear during a "60 Minutes" interview aired on Sunday night that policymakers will wait to see continued progress toward cooler price increases before cutting interest rates.

Chinese markets were extremely volatile after a pledge by the country's securities regulator to rein in wild fluctuations in the stock market.

Growth worries persisted as a private survey showed China's services sector activity expanded at a slower pace in January.

Gold dipped about half a percent in Asian trade while oil traded higher following fresh strikes in Tehran-aligned factions in Iraq, Syria and Yemen over the last two days by the United States.

The European economic calendar remains light, with foreign trade data from Germany and investor confidence survey results from the euro area awaited later in the session.

The U.S. economic calendar for this week is relatively quiet, with traders likely to keep an eye on reports on weekly jobless claims, service sector activity and the U.S. trade deficit.

On the earnings front, Caterpillar (CAT), McDonald's (MCD), Amgen (AMGN), Ford (F), Disney (DIS) and PepsiCo (PEP) are among the prominent companies due to report their quarterly results this week.

U.S. stocks rallied Friday on the back of encouraging earnings reports from the likes of Amazon and Meta Platforms as well as robust January employment data.

Data showed the U.S. economy added 353,000 jobs in January, much higher than expectations for an increase of about 180,000 jobs.

Job growth for December was revised higher and the jobless rate came in unchanged at 3.7 percent in January, prompting investors to scale back their expectations for interest-rate cuts this year.

The Dow edged up 0.4 percent and the S&P 500 added 1.1 percent to reach new record closing highs while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.7 percent.

European stocks ended mixed Friday on waning rate cut optimism. The pan-European STOXX 600 gave up earlier gains to end on a flat note.

The German DAX rose 0.4 percent and France's CAC 40 edged up marginally while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 ended with a negative bias.