European Shares To Open Mostly Higher On China Stimulus Hopes

(RTTNews) - European stocks are seen opening mostly higher on Tuesday after the Bank of Japan retained its ultra-loose policy and stuck to its yield curve control policy, as widely expected.

In another development, China's Premier Li Qiang asked authorities to take more effective measures to arrest a seemingly endless decline in the stock market and boost investor confidence.

Asian markets were broadly higher, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rallying nearly 3 percent and mainland Chinese indexes pausing recent losses on hopes of more government support.

The Bloomberg reported that China is considering a 1 trillion-yuan fiscal stimulus and a similarly sized special bond stimulus to rescue the stock market.

The European Central Bank meets on Thursday and no change in interest rates is expected. The bank's statement will be closely watched for clues about the timing and pace of interest rate cuts.

Across the Atlantic, the focus this week centers on key events such as the release of Federal Reserve's preferred PCE price index and other reports on durable goods orders, new home sales and fourth quarter GDP.

The U.S. earnings season picks up this week, with General Electric, J&J, Procter & Gamble, Tesla, Netflix and Intel due to report their quarterly earnings results.

The U.S. dollar was little changed in Asian trading and gold edged higher while oil prices dipped after rallying around 2 percent on Monday on concerns over energy supplies.

U.S. stocks closed higher on Monday amid optimism about the outlook for earnings.

The S&P 500 edged up 0.2 percent to close at a record high for a second day running, while the Dow rose 0.4 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 0.3 percent.

European stocks closed higher on Monday ahead of key economic readings and central bank meetings due later in the week.

The pan European STOXX 600 climbed 0.8 percent. The German DAX also rallied 0.8 percent, France's CAC 40 gained 0.6 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 inched up 0.4 percent.