Europe midday: Stoxx up but investors eye US tech earnings this week

(Sharecast News) - European shares started the week in positive mood with the benchmark Stoxx 600 index pushing over the 500 mark at the open.

The index was up 0.51% to 501.32 with all major bourses higher. Britain's FTSE 100 outperformed the with a 1.45% gain to 8010.

"The pulse of positivity comes in the absence of fresh retaliatory attacks by Israel or Iran and the US flexing its funding muscle and passing a crucial ($61bn) aid package for Ukraine," said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Susannah Streeter.

"But some unease is set to continue about high valuations on Wall Street, following a string of falls last week. The focus is switching to earnings season kicking off, and tech giants have a lot to prove as concerns grow about the era of high interest rates continuing."

Investor will have eyes on earnings from US tech heavyweights this week, with Microsoft, Tesla, Meta and Google owner Alphabet all reporting.

Scope Markets analyst Joshua Mahony said that while the Federal Reserve may have entered a blackout period this week, "their silence will do little to stifle concerns over the trajectory of US inflation and interest rates".

"This week sees the US report both growth and core PCE inflation data, with equities likely to suffer in the event of any strengthening in these metrics. With markets having spent much of this year reassessing their expectations from the Fed, we are now facing a strong possibility that rate cuts are pushed out to 2025."

In equity news, Galp Energia surged 18% after the Portuguese firm said that the Mopane field off the coast of Namibia could have at least 10 billion barrels of oil.

'Lord of the Rings' video game maker Embracer was up 9% after the Swedish firm announced it was splitting into three standalone listed entities.

Alstom was up after the French train manufacturer agreed to sell its North American conventional rail signalling business to German rail systems manufacturer Knorr-Bremse for around €630m.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com