LONDON — European stocks are expected to open higher on Monday as investors continue to monitor developments around the omicron Covid variant and bitcoin volatility.

United Kingdom’s FTSEindex opens at 7.165 points, Germany’s highest point. Index is 56 points higher DAX 136 points higher at 15,259, France’s CAC 40 up 72 points at 6,815 and Italy’s FTSE MIBAccording to data from IG, it was 199 points more at 26,107

The European market is set to see a positive trading week, but the global picture looks mixed.

As investors watched bitcoin prices, stocks in Asia-Pacific fell Monday. fell sharply over the weekend. In the meantime, oil prices shot up during Asia trade. They rose more than 2 % in Asia trading hours. after mostly falling last week on Covid uncertainty and the OPEC+ plan to increase output in January.

Stock futures in the States were still higher after the election. losing week on Wall Street as investors ditched equities amid concerns over the new omicron Covid variant and the Federal Reserve’s move to tighten policy. At least 15 U.S. states have detected the omicron coronavirus variant now.

Technology stocks were heavily sold last Friday, and this trend extended to cryptos bitcoin prices volatile throughout the weekend. Bitcoin traded around $57,000 on Friday morning, but by Saturday had fallen to around $43,000. On Sunday, the largest cryptocurrency in the world was recovered some of its lossesHowever, the price of it traded lower than its $50,000 threshold; currently, it trades at around $49k058.

The data released in Europe Monday includes German industrial orders, December’s sentix index and an estimate for Greece’s domestic product during the third quarter.

— CNBC’s Pippa Stevens and Weizhen Tan contributed to this market report.