Peter Nurse 

Investing.com. European stock markets will open lower Mondays due to higher oil prices as well as tensions in Ukraine.

The contract in Germany fell 0.8% at 3:05 AM ET (705 GMT) while the one in France declined 0.8%. Meanwhile, the U.K. contract dropped 0.6%.

The conflict triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 is entering its fifth week. The diplomatic efforts continue, with Turkey’s foreign minister declaring on Sunday that both sides are close to an agreement on “critical” matters. However, fighting is continuing, in particular around Mariupol (in the southeast of Ukraine).

U.S. President Joe Biden is set to arrive in Brussels on Thursday for summits with the members of NATO, as well as the European Union governments to discuss their response to Russia’s aggression. The EU will then meet ahead of the summit to discuss whether it should join the United States’ oil embargo against Russia.

Moscow has been subject to a series of harsh sanctions from the West, which include a freeze on assets at the Russian central bank. These sanctions have not been able to convince Vladimir Putin, the Russian president to end the fighting. The obvious next step is to attack Russian oil.

It would prove to be a difficult economic decision, since the EU depends on Russia for 40%. Germany is the largest dependent member of the EU’s large economies.

As a result of the attack on Saudi oil facilities last weekend, prices rose Monday. However, supplyjitters caused by this incident also occurred Saudi Aramco Yanbu’s joint venture for refinery in Yanbu is experiencing a temporary decrease in production. 

Futures were trading 3.3% higher at $106.50 per barrel by 2:05 PM ET. Contract prices rose 3% to $111.11.

The oil price fell again last week but was able to rebound from the shortage of Russian barrels and shrinking stocks. 

Economic news: Inflation rose once again in February. It increased by 1.4% and a staggering 25.9% respectively. This puts inflation squarely at the forefront of investors’ thoughts ahead of a speech from Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, later Monday.

Looking at the corporate sector, Volkswagen (DE:) could be in focus, and the German car manufacturer’s Chinese unit said on Monday it will form joint ventures with Huayou Cobalt and Tsingshan Group, in a bid to control battery costs at a time of surging raw material prices.

Also, the price of gold fell 0.3% at $1,923.15/oz while it traded 0.1% higher at 1.1043.