European stocks up ahead of US economic data this week

European stocks rose today, Tuesday, as investors returned from a long weekend to face a week full of important economic data that is expected to provide more clues about the path of interest rates globally.

According to “Reuters”, the European Stoxx 600 index rose 0.5 percent, and shares of mining and automobile companies led the gains, as they jumped 2.17 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively. The index of the food and beverage products sector decreased by 0.6 percent

Among the much-anticipated set of data are inflation figures in Germany and the United States for March

Markets also tracked the mixed moves on Wall Street overnight as investors digested Friday’s jobs report showing strong job growth and a limited, but welcome, decline in wage inflation.

The International Monetary Fund will also release its latest outlook on the global economy at 1300 GMT amid a gathering of policymakers for the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

A survey on Tuesday showed that investor sentiment in the euro zone improved in April after a surprising drop in March

Investors are also awaiting the Eurozone retail sales report for February, which is scheduled to be released later on Tuesday.

Among individual stocks, UBS rose 1.9 percent after JPMorgan raised its target price, coinciding with the Swiss parliament holding an extraordinary session to discuss the acquisition of rival Credit Suisse by Swiss bank UBS.

Glencore shares rose 2.8 percent in light of a scheduled meeting between the company’s president and some shareholders of Tech Resources in Toronto, Canada, on Thursday, to drum up support for a proposed acquisition of the copper and zinc producer.

Vodafone shares rose 0.7 percent after the major telecommunications company resolved an outage that lasted for several hours and affected thousands of home broadband users in the United Kingdom.