European stocks close lower as market jitters persist; 2-year gilt yields hit fresh 15-year high

British fashion retailer Next was 5% higher Monday after raising its sales and profit guidance for the year. The clothes brand noted that trading had exceeded expectations thanks to recent warm weather and a boost in wages for consumers.

On the other end, shares of Swedish medical technology company Getinge tumbled 15% as supply chain issues led the firm to issue a profit warning.

— Karen Gilchrist

Andrew Bell, CEO of Witan Investment Trust, says the full effect of monetary policy tightening in the U.K. has not been felt yet and the Bank of England should take a gradual approach to increasing interest rates.

The yield on 2-year U.K. government bonds, also known as gilts, hit a 15-year high Monday.

The yield was trading around 4.978% by 9:40 a.m. London time — the highest since July 2008 — ahead of the Bank of England's monetary policy decision Thursday.

The central bank is widely expected to increase interest rates by 25 basis points in the face of still-high inflation and a strong labor market.

"The incoming UK data since the May MPC meeting point to mixed growth momentum, continued tightness in the labour market, and very strong underlying inflationary pressures," Goldman Sachs analysts led by Sven Jari Stehn said in a note on June 15.

"Although some uncertainty remains ahead of the June 21 CPI release, we expect a 25bp hike at next week's meeting and see a high hurdle for a 50bp step because inflation expectations have remained anchored, recent comments have signalled no appetite for stepping up the pace and the meeting will have no press conference or new projections."

— Katrina Bishop

Morgan Stanley expects five of its top Asia stock picks to rise by more than 50% over the next 12 months.

The Wall Street bank is bullish on a set of Asian stocks as the broad MSCI Asia Pacific equities index has entered a new bull market, rising 25% from last October's low.

Alibaba is the investment bank's top pick in the China internet sector.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more about the remaining 4 stocks here.

— Ganesh Rao

Consumer inflation expectations tumbled in June, providing support for the Federal Reserve in its battle against rising prices.

The closely watched University of Michigan Survey of Consumers showed that one-year expectations plunged to 3.3%, down from 4.2% the prior month. That's the lowest level since March 2021.

The headline reading for the survey posted a 63.9 reading, better than the Dow Jones estimate for 60.2 and up from May's 59.2.

—Jeff Cox

U.S. stocks aren't the only ones soaring this year.

Some global indexes have followed those gains and climbed.

Analysts are still optimistic about some parts of the U.S. market, but some expect international markets to do better this year.

CNBC Pro screened for stocks in the MSCI World, S&P 500 and the Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-U.S. Index Fund for global names with big upside.

The resulting stocks have buy ratings from over 65% of analysts covering them, and average price target upside of at least 30%.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Weizhen Tan

European markets are heading for a positive open Thursday.

The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index is expected to open 3 points higher at 7,425, Germany's DAX up 29 points at 16,194, France's CAC up 6 points at 7,277 and Italy's FTSE MIB up 18 points at 29,730, according to data from IG. 

Regional investors will be keeping a close eye on the release of preliminary euro zone inflation data for November on Thursday. Final third-quarter gross domestic product data for France is also due, as are German unemployment figures for November.

— Holly Ellyatt