European stocks to open higher amid renewed hopes of US-North Korea summit

European stocks are set to open higher on Monday morning, amid signs of thawing tensions between the U.S. and North Korea.

The CAC is expected to open 10 points higher at 5,544, while the DAX is poised to start up 38 points at 12,971, according to IG. Market holidays in the U.K. and U.S. were widely expected to make trading slow and illiquid on Monday.

President Donald Trump said Sunday that representatives from the U.S. had arrived in North Korea over the weekend, in an effort to prepare for a proposed summit between him and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Last week, the U.S. president pulled out of the scheduled meeting, due in Singapore next month, citing the isolated regime’s “hostility.”

Asian stocks edged higher on Monday, following news Washington and Pyongyang are still working towards holding a summit. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares, excluding Japan, rose 0.2 percent.

Back in Europe, the leader of Italy’s largest political party called for the country’s president to be impeached after choosing to veto a choice for economy minister. Luigi Di Maio of the anti-establishment Five Star Party said President Sergio Mattarella had prompted an “institutional crisis” by rejecting euroskeptic candidate Paolo Savona.

No major political group has been able to form a majority in Italy since elections in March, leaving the euro zone’s third-largest economy without a government.

On the data front, German import prices for April are due to be released shortly before the opening bell.

Source: CNBC