BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - European stocks may open on a firm note
Monday, though overall gains may remain capped somewhat as traders await the
outcome of the highly anticipated Federal Reserve's policy meeting scheduled for
April 30 to May 1.

Along with the Fed's monetary policy announcement, the monthly jobs report and
other U.S. reports on manufacturing and service sector activity due this week
may offer additional clues on the economic and rate outlook.

Asian stocks traded mostly higher in thin trade, with Japanese markets closed
for a holiday.

The U.S. dollar was a shade softer, though the yen briefly hit ¥160 against the
greenback on waning expectations for near-term rate increases from the Bank of
Japan (BOJ).

BOJ chief Kazuo Ueda on Friday played down the immediate impact of the yen's
recent sharp decline on prices, calling it negligible.

Chinese and Hong Kong shares traded higher despite data showing a slump in
China's industrial profits in March.

Oil and gold prices fell in Asian trading as U.S. Secretary of State Antony
Blinken arrived in Riyadh for talks on an elusive Israel-Hamas truce and hostage
deal.

Destatis is set to release Germany's flash inflation figures for April later in
the day. Consumer price inflation is seen at 2.3 percent, up from 2.2 percent in
March.

The European Commission is scheduled to issue economic sentiment survey data for
April. Economists forecast the euro area economic sentiment index to improve to
96.9 from 96.3 in March.

U.S. stocks rose sharply on Friday on the back of blowout earnings reports from
technology heavyweights Alphabet and Microsoft as well as encouraging inflation
data that contained no big surprises.

Data showed that inflation, as measured by the Personal Consumption Expenditures
(PCE) price index, held steady at 0.3 percent in March, in line with
expectations.

The index rose 2.7 percent year-on-year, above the estimate of 2.6 percent while
the core PCE index came in at 2.8 percent versus expectations for a score of 2.7
percent.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite surged 2 percent, the S&P 500 climbed 1 percent
and the Dow edged up 0.4 percent.

European stocks closed on a firm note Friday after a dip in the previous
session.

The pan European STOXX 600 rallied 1.1 percent. The German DAX jumped 1.4
percent, France's CAC 40 gained 0.9 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 added 0.8
percent.



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