European stocks are expected to open modestly higher Tuesday even in the weak of a deadly terrorist atrocity which left nineteen dead and nearly sixty injured at a pop concert in the northern city of Manchester.
Britain's FTSE 100 is likely at add around 8 points at the opening bell, according to financial bookmakers IG, with small gains anticipated for benchmarks in Germany and France. The region-wide Stoxx Europe 600 Index, the broadest measure of share prices, ended the Monday session at 391.14, about 0.1% lower from last week's close while the iShares MSCI EMU Index ETF (EZU) , one of the broadest measures of regional blue chip shares and the latest addition to the Action Alerts PLUS charity portfolio co-managed by TheStreet's Jim Cramer, was marked 0.17% higher at €41.29 per share, taking its year-to-date gain to around 19.3%.
Overnight in Asia, markets were largely focused on currency moves, both in the aftermath of the Manchester attack, which took place at the end of a concert by the U.S. artist Ariana Grande and the ongoing political developments in the United States with respect to multiple probes into ties between President Donald Trump and officials in Moscow.
The dollar index, a measure of the greenback's strength against a basket of six global currencies, was marked 0.10% lower at 96.874, the lowest since early October. The ongoing dollar bearishness, which has clipped 2.2% from the index so far this month, has helped push the euro to a six-month high of 1.1250 and taken sterling to its highest levels since late September.