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· European shares were flat to marginally higher in early trading on Monday, with Italian shares recovering some ground after a bout of selling driven by political nerves as all eyes moved to this week’s meeting of the European Central Bank.

After ending last week marginally higher on hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve could cut interest rates by a more aggressive half-percentage point next week, the pan-euro zone stocks benchmark .STOXXE was up around 0.05% by 0732 GMT.

· Asia stocks fell on Monday as investors scaled back expectations of an aggressive Federal Reserve interest rate cut, while crude oil prices rose on heightened Middle East tensions following Iran’s seizure of a British tanker.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was down 0.4%.

· Japanese shares dipped on Monday as hopes for a large U.S. Federal Reserve rate cut faded and investors took a cautious stance ahead of the domestic earnings seasons, which starts this week.

The Nikkei share average fell 0.23% to 21,416.79 while the broader Topix shed 0.49% to 1,556.37, with low turnover of 1.63 trillion yen, about 30% below the annual average.

· China’s major stock indexes closed lower on Monday, as enthusiasm for the country’s new Nasdaq-style STAR Market drew investor attention away from the main boards.

The blue-chip CSI300 index fell 0.7%, to 3,781.68, while the Shanghai Composite Index closed down 1.3% at 2,886.97.

Reference: CNBC, Reuters