European markets close lower as investors focus on Fed meeting this week

U.S. stocks opened lower on Monday as investors looked ahead to the busiest week of earnings season and a possible interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 83 points, or about 0.3%. S&P 500 dropped 0.6%, and the Nasdaq Composite fell by 1% in early deals.

—Karen Gilchrist

Roy Jakobs, CEO of Philips, discusses Q4 earnings for the company and the strategy to improve supply chain shortages and the overall company's profitability.

British fashion retail group JD Sports on Monday said the personal and financial information of roughly 10 million customers "may have been accessed" in a cyber attack, according to a London Stock Exchange statement.

The data prospectively at risk relates to historical orders placed between November 2018 and October 2020 with the chain's JD, Size?, Millets, Blacks, Scotts and MilletSport brands. It includes clients' names, billing addresses, delivery addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, order details and the final four digits of customer payment cards.

The company said it is contacting clients to advise them of the risk of fraud and phishing attacks, while carrying out an investigation and engaging with the UK's Information Commissioner's Office.

JD Sports shares were down just 0.50% from the previous close price, reaching $160.8 at 11:58 a.m. London time.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Daniel Lacalle, chief economist at Tressis, says core inflation remains "extremely elevated."

Automobile giants Renault and Nissan on Monday agreed to restructure their decades-long alliance, in a move that would see Renault's shareholdings in Nissan reduced from around 43% to 15%.

The deal, which still pends board approvals, would equalize the companies' cross-shareholdings, with the carmakers now able to "freely exercise the voting rights attached to their 15% direct shareholdings, with a 15% cap," the companies said.

The new structure would also see Renault transfer 28.4% of Nissan shares into a French trust.

Renault shares were down 1.6% at 10:40 a.m. London time.

Read the full story here.

— Elliot Smith

Shares of British financial services group Legal & General dipped 2.5% after CEO Nigel Wilson announced he would be retiring after a decade in the role.

The company said Wilson would stay in the role until his successor is appointed, a process it expects to take around a year.

It added Wilson had delivered a "consistently strong financial performance with a total shareholder return of over 600% driven by significant growth in dividends, earnings per share and ROE."

Legal & General shares are down around 11% on a one-year basis.

— Jenni Reid

British IT services company Computacenter was up 8.8% in early trade after announcing it expected 2022 results to outperform guidance, though it flagged continuing inflationary pressure.

Philips gained 5% after announcing a range of measures to improve profitability, including 6,000 job cuts.

CEO Roy Jakobs told CNBC the cuts were a "necessary intervention to help us to become competitive and lean in the way we go forward in the market."

At the bottom of European stocks, tech investment group Prosus dipped 5.5%. Last week, the company said it would shed around 30% alongside its parent company as it looks to "strengthen cost structures."

— Jenni Reid

Europe's Stoxx 600 index opened lower Monday, with all sectors in the red or flat.

Technology led losses, down 1.6%, followed by travel, down 1.2%.

Attention this week is firmly on the slew of monetary policy decisions to come from central banks, with the Federal Reserve announcing its next rate hike move Wednesday, followed by the Bank of England and European Central Bank on Thursday.

— Jenni Reid

Oil prices could approach $100 per barrel in the second half of the year, according to RBC Capital Markets' Michael Tran.                         

"The bottom line here is that China is going to be buying a lot of crude over the course of the next several months," he said.

Brent crude futures last traded flat at $86.85 a barrel, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures inched up 0.09% to $79.75 a barrel.

Investors and OPEC+ will also be waiting to see if EU's embargo on Russian oil products, which kicks in this Sunday, will lead to any major disruptions. The oil cartel is not expected to make any real changes to their quotas or production guidance in an upcoming meeting, Tran forecasts.

—Lee Ying Shan

Shares of Adani Enterprises rose 10% after seeing sharp-losses in the previous sessions as its Chief Financial Officer voiced confidence in its follow-on public offering that is slated to close on Jan. 31.

The stock is is still down more than 20% in the first month of the year.

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone also saw modest gains of 9% in India's first hour of trade and remains 23% lower year-to-date.

Adani Green Energy remained volatile and last traded 10% lower, Adani Power lost 5% and Adani Transmission also lost 17%.

India's Nifty 50 Index traded 0.6% higher on Monday after hitting three-month lows on last weeks rout of Adani shares.

— Jihye Lee

One corner of tech might be seeing "limited appetite" from the market, according to Goldman Sachs. But the investment bank is optimistic.

It names stocks with near-term opportunity, as well as "offensive picks" it says can beat their peers as the economy recovers.

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— Weizhen Tan

European markets are heading for a higher open Thursday as concerns over the banking sector ease.

The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index is expected to open 8 points higher at 7,558, Germany's DAX 30 points higher at 15,341, France's CAC up 12 points at 7,194 and Italy's FTSE MIB 49 points higher at 26,301, according to data from IG.

Data releases include preliminary German inflation data for March and Italian producer prices for February.

— Holly Ellyatt