European markets slightly higher; U.S., UK inflation in focus this week

LONDON — European stocks kicked off the new trading week higher, with U.S. and U.K. inflation data set to dominate focus this week.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was 0.05% higher by 10:50 a.m. in London, paring earlier gains, as investors hunt for signs that last week’s market rout is finished. Financial services and insurance led gains, both up by around 0.6%.

European stocks followed their counterparts in Asia-Pacific higher, continuing to shake off recent volatility. Global stock markets see-sawed last week with steep sell-offs followed by a sharp rebound.

The Stoxx 600 index ended up with a weekly gain of 0.27%, according to LSEG data, rebounding from a 2.9% decline the week before.

U.S. stock futures were little-changed Monday as investors await key inflation data, with the core producer price index Tuesday followed by July’s consumer price index Wednesday.

Major Wall Street averages rose Friday, with the indexes making a sharp recovery from a downturn.

Investors this week are hoping to get a better sense of the state of the U.S. economy after recent fears of a job market slowdown spooked traders and rocked the market.

“Overall, there were some nerves at the start of last week and into the weekend, but overall when you look at where we’ve settled it’s kind of a market reset. You’ve seen a lot of the very stretched positioning washed out, you see an easier ability for the market to price some of the fundamentals,” Richard Kelly, head of global strategy at TD Securities, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Monday.

“August is always a scary period, there’s low liquidity and when you get shocks it’s difficult for the market to price but so far, I think it’s cleaned things out a little.”

Markets are likely to be “jittery” until further releases including on payrolls and manufacturing next month, Kelly added.

U.K. inflation data is due on Wednesday, the first print since the Bank of England cut interest rates by 25 basis points.