French Market Slides

(RTTNews) - The French market is trading lower on Monday, even as as growth optimism emerged across the region as a result of data out of China and the U.S. Many markets in the region, including Austria,Cyprus, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Norway, Hungary, Switzerland and Ukraine, were closed for the Whit Monday holiday.

Government data released on Sunday showed that China's trade surplus jumped to nearly $36 billion in May, the highest in over five years, due to an unexpected fall in imports.

While exports increased 7 percent to $195.47 billion year-over-year, beating estimates, imports declined 1.6 percent to $159.55 billion, signaling weaker domestic demand.

Closer home, Eurozone investor confidence weakened for the second straight month in June, to the lowest since December 2013, survey results from the think tank Sentix showed.

The investor sentiment index fell unexpectedly to 8.5 in June, the lowest since December 2013, from 12.8 in May. The score was forecast to rise to 13 in June.

The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks is adding 0.8 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, is rising 0.18 percent.

The CAC 40 index is sliding 0.05 percent.

Michelin is moderately lower. The tire maker plans to acquire all outstanding shares of Sascar, Brazil-based digital fleet management and freight security company, for an enterprise value of 520 million euros.

Canaccord reduced Total to ''Hold'' from ''Buy.'' The stock is down 0.2 percent.

ArcelorMittal is rising 1.6 percent on the CAC 40. S&P Capital raised the stock to ''Hold'' from ''Sell.''

Among major markets in the region, the German DAX and the UK's FTSE 100 are trading higher.

The Asian stocks rose broadly, as solid U.S. jobs data, better-than-expected export data from China and upwardly revised growth figures from Japan bolstered the outlook for global economic growth.

In the U.S., futures point to a lower open on Wall Street. In the previous session, stocks rose on optimism about the economic outlook after the May payrolls report showed the economy added over 200,000 jobs for the fourth month in a row.

The Dow and the S&P 500 rose about half a percent each to fresh record closing highs, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.6 percent.

Crude for July delivery is gaining $0.57 to $103.23 per barrel, while August gold is rising $2.9 to $1255.4 a troy ounce.