European stocks close slightly higher ahead of inflation data; Aurubis shares down 9%

Shares of metals firm Aurubis were 10% lower during afternoon deals, weighing on the mining sector.

The company reported a 17% decline in revenue and 5% slip in its gross margin in the third quarter, though strong gains in core profit.

The company reiterated its full-year guidance and said it had successfully navigated a 40-day maintenance shutdown.

— Jenni Reid

Shanti Kelemen, chief investment officer at M&G Wealth, says "raising rates just doesn't feed through to the economy as quick as it used to," adding that the "economy is different today."

Christian Bruch, CEO of Siemens Energy, discusses the German firm's latest earnings and its recent troubles regarding wind turbines.

U.K. house prices fell 0.3% in July, the fourth consecutive monthly decline, according to bank Halifax.

House prices were down 2.4% on an annual basis.

Kim Kinnaird, director of Halifax Mortgages, said the downward moves did not have a significant impact on the cost of homes over the last six months, during which the average property price fell to £285,044 ($362,945) from £285,660.

"These figures add to the sense of a housing market which continues to display a degree of resilience in the face of tough economic headwinds. In particular, we're seeing activity amongst first-time buyers hold up relatively well, with indications some are now searching for smaller homes, to offset higher borrowing costs," Kinnaird said.

Strong wage growth and a resilient jobs market are providing market support, Kinnaird said, while peak rate expectations on the Bank of England have fallen.

Halifax now anticipates a "gradual rather than a precipitous decline" in house prices that does not fully reverse the sharp growth since the pandemic.

— Jenni Reid

Siemens Energy CEO Christian Bruch said Monday that the company needs to slow down its rollout of new products after booking 2.2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) in costs due to quality issues at its wind turbine unit.

"The quality problems really result from the past, but I think we have too fast rolled out platforms into the market," Bruch told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Monday.

Siemens Energy — born from the spinoff of the former gas and power division of German conglomerate Siemens — posted strong growth in orders and revenue, and logged a record order backlog of 109 billion euros in its third-quarter earnings report Monday.

Revenues increased by 8% on a comparable basis to 7.5 billion euros, but the company recorded a third-quarter net loss of 2.93 billion euros compared to the 564 million euro loss reported for the same quarter of 2022.

Read the full story here.

— Elliot Smith

Saudi state oil giant Aramco reported 112.81 billion riyal ($30.07 billion) in net profit in the second quarter, a drop of nearly 40% from the $48.4 billion recorded in the same period of last year amid a decline in hydrocarbon prices.

Second-quarter profit nevertheless came slightly above analyst expectations near $29.8 billion in an Aramco-supplied poll.

Read the full story here.

— Natasha Turak, Dan Murphy

European stocks opened modestly lower Monday, with the benchmark Stoxx 600 down 0.2% and most sectors declining.

Germany's DAX fell 0.44% and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 and France's CAC 40 declined 0.3% and 0.2%, respectively.

— Jenni Reid

European markets look set to open lower Monday, according to data from IG.

The FTSE 100 is seen opening 16 points lower at 7,551, the DAX 52 points lower at 15,904, and the CAC 22 points lower at 7,300.

— Jenni Reid

Oil prices surged Monday to their highest since mid-April, following an attack on a key Russian oil export hub and extended production cuts by OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Over the weekend, Ukraine launched a naval drone attack on Russia's port of Novorossiysk, a critical hub on the Black Sea for Russian oil exports. 

Read the full story here.

— Lee Ying Shan

The Bank of Japan said it still has a "significantly long way to go" before revising its stance on its negative interest rate policy, adding that its yield curve control framework still needs to be maintained.

During its last meeting in July, the BOJ maintained its benchmark interest rate at -0.1%, but pledged to conduct YCC with "greater flexibility, regarding the upper and lower bounds of the range as references, not as rigid limits."

In its summary of opinions for its July 28 meeting, the BOJ noted "strictly capping 10-year Japanese government bond (JGB) yields at the 0.5% level could affect the functioning of bond markets and the volatility in other financial markets."

As such, the central bank added it needs to continue with monetary easing so as to achieve its inflation target of 2%, elaborating that "it is necessary for the Bank to keep supporting the momentum for wage hikes through continuation of monetary easing."

— Lim Hui Jie

Morgan Stanley has identified three Asia Pacific stocks as "high conviction" and actionable trade ideas.

According to the Wall Street bank, the trade ideas are effective for 13 weeks from July 30, when they were first shared in a note to clients.

The bank said the three stock ideas highlight "actionable, high-conviction calls" made by its equity research team in the preceding week.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Ganesh Rao

Morgan Stanley has downgraded MSCI China while upgrading their view on India.

The analysts expect the Chinese stock market volatility to remain relatively high due to swings in investor hopes and disappointments about government policy.

But they're still recommending a few consumer and industrial names in China.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Evelyn Cheng

Analysts at JPMorgan named five global stocks in a sector they described as being in "pole position," following the Federal Reserve's latest rate hike.

They expect the stocks to outperform in the next six to 12 months, including them on a list of top European picks.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Lucy Handley