Peter Nurse 

Investing.com – European stock markets traded mixed early on Monday, with investors weighing strong results from banking giant HSBC as well as China’s latest Covid-19 outbreak.

At 4:30 AM ET (0830 GMT), the in Germany traded 0.2% higher, the U.K.’s climbed 0.5%, at a 52-week high, while the in France fell 0.1% .

HSBC (LON) shares rose 0.2% following a surprise 74% increase in profit in the third quarter. The U.K. bank giant was one of Europe’s largest and posted pretax profits of $5.4 billion, compared to $3.1 billion a previous year.

Similar to Wall Street’s latest results, they were helped by the release cash for supposed bad loans which haven’t materialized. HSBC announced a buyback of shares up to $2B, but did not announce a return of its dividend.

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, MI: stock plummeted more than 5%, following UniCredit (MI :), down 1.8%. The Italian government stopped negotiations regarding the sale of this bank. 

Elsewhere, Lufthansa (DE:) stock rose 0.8% after the chief executive of the German airline said Monday that business air travel is recovering faster than expected and should remain solid through the winter.

Still, worries are growing that an increase in Covid-19 cases in China, one of the globe’s main growth drivers, will hit global demand.

China said Monday that the number of new cases will rise in the days ahead after an outbreak spread to 11 provinces. This prompted the lockdown of Ejin in northern Inner Mongolia, which has witnessed the highest numbers in Covid-19-related deaths. China is the only country that still has a zero tolerance attitude towards Covid. It prefers economically expensive lockdowns over accepting the possibility of Covid becoming endemic.

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:) downgraded its prediction for China’s economic growth at the weekend, saying it will likely expand 5.2% next year, down from a previous projection of 5.6%.  

Germany’s Ifo Institute released its earlier Monday, and the index slipped to 97.7, from a revised 98.9 the previous month. Zooplus stock (DE:) rose 0.6% in Germany after the takeover battle between two equity firms for the pet supply retailer concluded with them making an offer that appears likely to be approved.

Crude oil prices surged Monday as global demand and supply remain strong, despite the fact that crude oil prices have risen to multi-year record highs.

Futures were trading 0.9% higher at $84.47 per barrel by 4:30 AM ET. This is just below the Oct 2014 peak, and the contract rose 0.7%, to $85.22, which was just 0.9% off its October 2018 high.

Also, the price rose 0.3% at $1,801.05/oz and traded 0.1% higher to 1.1656