Peter Nurse 

Investing.com: European stock markets will open higher on Monday, beginning a week with a positive tone despite Covid-induced restrictions.  

2.30 AM ET (0700 GMT): The German contract traded 0.3% higher while France’s contract rose 0.4%, and the U.K contract rose 0.4%.

These major European equity indices have been strong lately, thanks to high corporate earnings and the European Central Bank’s prudent monetary policy.

This might be put to the test Monday with the return of Covid-19 restrictions. Austria has begun its fourth national lockdown, since the outbreak of the pandemic. 

This lockdown will prevent infections from escalating before mandated vaccinations begin in February. It would be the most recent such policy in Europe where government have largely kept vaccinations voluntary.  

The German neighbor also rejected the possibility of a lockdown Friday. However, the Netherlands and Ireland have encouraged people to work from their homes to stop the spread of the virus.

Still, the reemergence of the virus is likely to add weight to European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde’s view that tightening policy now could choke off the region’s economic recovery.

There has been increasing pressure on the central bank to tighten its loose monetary policy in order to counter rising prices, particularly after October’s 4.1% increase year-on-year, which was more than double the ECB target.

We now move on to the quarterly earnings season of the Swiss bank Julius Baer (SIX Report:) It reported its profitability increased “significantly”, in the 10 first months of 2021 thanks to buoyant markets, new money flows and strong market conditions.

The telecoms industry will also be in the spotlight. Telecom Italia (MI:) announced that over the weekend, it received a 10.8 Billion Euro ($12 Billion) proposal from U.S. funds KKR to take Italy’s largest telephone group private.

Ericsson, a mobile telecoms equipment manufacturer (BS:), announced that it has agreed to purchase Vonage, a cloud communication firm for $6.2 million.   

Crude oil prices fell Monday as Japan joined the group of high-end consumers that are considering increasing supply following an American request late last week.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida signalled on Saturday he was ready to help combat soaring oil prices by exploring a way to release oil from the country’s strategic reserves. 

The demand may also be affected by the soaring numbers of Covid cases being filed in Europe, which has led to further restrictions.

The futures fell 0.3% to $75.84/barrel by 02:01 ET. Meanwhile, the contract dropped 0.3% (0.3%) to $78.66. After falling around 3% Friday, both benchmarks fell to their lowest level since October’s start earlier in session. 

The price fell 0.5% to $1.843.40/oz and traded 0.2% higher at 1.1268