European stocks were slightly higher on Monday morning, amid mounting speculation the U.S. Federal Reserve could sound decidedly dovish at its policy meeting later this week.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 was up around 0.2 percent during early morning deals, with most sectors and major bourses in positive territory.
Europe’s basic resources led the gains shortly after the opening bell, up more than 1.4 percent. Shares of Rio Tinto, Anglo American and ArcelorMittal were up around 2 percent.
Looking at individual stocks, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank surged to the top of the European benchmark Monday morning. It comes after Germany’s largest lenders confirmed they were in merger talks over the weekend. Shares of both banks jumped more than 3 percent on the news.
Meanwhile, France’s EDF slumped towards the bottom of the index after HSBC cut its rating on the stock to “hold” from “buy.” Shares of the Paris-listed firm dipped over 1 percent.
Market focus is largely attuned to the latest Brexit developments.
British Prime Minister Theresa May is scrambling to secure support for her Brexit deal once again, with only three days left to win approval from U.K. lawmakers ahead of a summit of the bloc’s leaders on Thursday.
On the data front, the euro area is expected to publish trade balance figures for January at around 10:00 a.m. London time.
The U.S. central bank will begin its meeting on interest rates on Tuesday, which ends with a news conference on Wednesday. The Federal Reserve is expected to lower their interest rate forecasts — or “dot plots” — to show little or no further tightening in 2019.
In Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares, excluding Japan, rose around 0.6 percent.
