Peter Nurse 

Investing.com: European stock markets will open higher on Tuesday. This is a continuation of the positive start to 2012, which reflects the hope for a stable economic recovery and a decrease in Covid-19 caseloads. 

2. AM ET (0700 GMT): The German contract traded 0.2% higher while France’s contract rose 0.5%. Meanwhile, the U.K contract rose 1%.

The first day of trading in the New Year saw strong gains for European indexes. Wall Street also followed suit with record closings of the and the while Asia was on Tuesday largely ahead.

Helping the tone Tuesday was the news that China’s factory activity grew at a faster pace in December. The came in at 50.9, the highest since June 2021, despite sporadic Covid-19 outbreaks slowing down the country’s economic recovery.

Despite the uncertainty about the Covid-19 pandemic and record-breaking numbers of cases in the U.S. daily, optimism prevails. The U.S. was also reporting record-setting levels of Covid-19, prompting restrictions to stop Omicron from spreading.

It rose by 0.6% in November compared to the same month last year. That’s a decrease of 2.9% over the prior month. The country’s for December will be in the spotlight later in the session, along with preliminary for the same month and the release.

Corporate news Novartis (SIX:) is likely to be in the spotlight after a U.S. court of appeals upheld the validity of a patent for the Swiss drugmaker’s multiple sclerosis treatment Gilenya.  

The tech sector may be under scrutiny after Apple (NASDAQ:), stock-market valuation temporarily rose above $3 trillion on Monday. Tesla (NASDAQ:), however, recorded strong gains following a strong quarter for electric-car manufacturers in terms of vehicle deliveries.

China is also a troubled property developer Evergrande Group (HK) stated Tuesday that its 2021 contracted sales had dropped 39% compared to the year before.

Prices for oil were mostly flat Tuesday in advance of the meeting of top producers. The goal of this meeting was to discuss future production levels. However, Omicron cases are increasing. There have been limited restraints by major fuel-consuming nations.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+) will be meeting virtually at the same time as the rest of the day. It is expected that the cartel will stick with its February plan of increasing output by 400,000 barrels each day.

Investors are also awaiting oil supply data from the, due later in today.

U.S. crude futures had fallen 0.1% to $76.03/barrel by 02:05 ET. Contract prices were slightly higher at $78.97. Both futures and contracts increased more than 1 percent on Monday.

The price also rose 0.2% to $1.803.95/oz while the exchange rate was flat at 1.1294.