Peter Nurse 

Investing.com: European stock markets closed higher on Monday. This ended a tough month, but investors are keeping an eye out for developments in Ukraine and Russia.

By 4 AM ET (0900 GMT), the in Germany traded 1.6% higher, the in France climbed 1.1% and the U.K.’s rose 0.4%.

Global stock markets have been hit hard in January, with the DAX, for example,  down over 3.5% as investors worried about rate hikes from the Federal Reserve to combat soaring inflation. 

According to the Ifo economic center, Monday was more optimistic, thanks to an improvement in manufacturing bottlenecks experienced by German companies since January.

Ifo stated that the proportion of German producers reporting difficulty procuring intermediate product and raw material decreased from 81.9% to 67.3% between December and January. 

Although the release indicates that problems remain, we welcome any improvement as disruptions translate to a contraction rate of 0.7% for Germany in the fourth quarter. Germany is Europe’s largest economy.

However, investors will likely focus their attention on UN Security Council meeting to address Russia’s military buildup at the Ukraine border. 

Western countries are currently preparing sanctions to levy on Russia should it invade its former Soviet-bloc neighbor, something Britain called “highly likely” over the weekend. Such a move could have severe repercussions for Europe’s energy supplies if Russia decides to limit its output to the region. 

This turmoil has helped oil prices climb to near seven-year peaks, ahead of Wednesday’s meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies led by Russia, a group known as OPEC+, to discuss future output.

The U.S. was 1.1% more expensive at $87.75 per barrel while the contract increased 1% to $89.40. On Friday, the benchmarks posted their highest level since October 2014. This was their sixth consecutive weekly increase. 

Staying in the oil sector, energy giant Shell (LON:) said it would begin trading with a single line of shares on Monday, ditching its A and B shares as part of plans to simplify its dual share structure.

Elsewhere, Vodafone The stock price of LON rose 3.2% following news this weekend about Cevian as an activist investor, who had acquired holdings in the telecom giant looking to expand its international business. 

KPN (AS) stock rose 1.5% following the Dutch telecom giant reporting a core profit increase of 4% for the fourth quarter. This was due to increased revenues from both consumers and businesses using mobile services.

The Spanish inflation fell to 6.5% year-on year in January, from 6.5% in December. This was largely due to lower electricity prices. However, the main economic data release for the Eurozone will be its preliminary fourth quarter. It is anticipated to increase 0.3%, which would represent a 4.7% gain on the year. The Eurozone will see data that show a decrease in inflation over the next year, due to the exclusion of VAT increases from previous years.

Also, the price of gold rose 0.3% at $1,789.90/oz while it traded 0.3% lower at 1.1171.