Peter Nurse

Investing.com. European stock market traded higher on Monday. This is a good start to an important week as investors prepare for a European Central Bank Meeting and the publication of U.S. Inflation data.

By 3:45 AM ET (0745 GMT), the in Germany traded 0.7% higher, the in France rose 0.9%, and the U.K.’s climbed 1.2%.

European shares rebounded Monday following a week that ended on a low note. Volumes were however lower with the U.K. taking a holiday. According to data released Friday, the U.S. economic growth was healthy in May. This has prompted investors to reconsider the possibility of higher Federal Reserve interest rates in the coming months.

Attention in Europe this week will focus on the European Central Bank’s on Thursday, which is expected to make clear that rate hikes will be coming in the third quarter.

Christine Lagarde (ECB President) outlined her plan to lift rates out of negative territory a few days ago. This suggested that the central banks minus 0.5% would start increasing in July, and then could rise “a bit” towards the neutral rate by September.

Boris Johnson (the U.K. Prime minister) will be facing a question from Members of Parliament from his party later Monday. The war in Ukraine is raging on with Kiev being struck by Russian cruise missiles, which were fired from the Caspian Sea. It was the first such attack in weeks.

Helping the tone Monday was an improvement in China’s to 41.4 in May from 36.2 in April, suggesting a slow recovery for the second largest economy in the world as the country eases its COVID-19 curbs.

Across the pond, investors are also keenly awaiting the release of Friday’s for May as this will act as a key input before the Fed decides how much to hike rates next week.

The stock of easyJet, LON:, rose 0.9% in corporate news. This was despite easyJet’s cancellation of 80 flights on Sunday, due to its ongoing difficult operating environment.

GSK (LON:) stock rose 0.1% after the drugmaker’s vaccine, Priorix, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the prevention of measles, mumps, and rubella in those aged one year and above.

Oil climbed Monday after Saudi Arabia substantially in July for Asian buyers, an indication that the world’s top oil exporter expects strong demand in the summer while supply remains very tight.

Despite OPEC+’s decision to boost output by 648,000 barrels per hour in July and august, the price increase was 50% higher than originally planned.

Futures closed 0.3% higher at $119.24/barrel by 3:45 am ET after hitting a high of three months earlier. Contract prices rose 0.3%, to $120.10.

Also, the price rose 0.2% at $1,854.70/oz and traded 0.2% higher to 1.0738.