European stocks climb as omicron variant, bitcoin volatility watched

LONDON — European stocks moved higher on Monday as investors continue to monitor developments around the omicron Covid variant and bitcoin volatility.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 added 0.7% in early trade, with oil and gas stocks climbing 1.4% to lead gains as nearly all sectors and major bourses entered positive territory.

European markets made a positive start to the trading week on Monday morning, although the picture is more mixed at a global level.

Stocks in Asia-Pacific dropped on Monday as investors monitored bitcoin prices after they fell sharply over the weekend. Meanwhile, oil prices jumped during early Asia trade, rising more than 2% in Asia trading hours after mostly falling last week on Covid uncertainty and the OPEC+ plan to increase output in January.

Stateside, stock futures were higher even after a losing week on Wall Street as investors ditched equities amid concerns over the new omicron Covid variant and the Federal Reserve's move to tighten policy. At least 15 U.S. states have detected the omicron coronavirus variant now.

The heavy selling in technology stocks last Friday extended to cryptocurrencies with bitcoin prices volatile throughout the weekend. Bitcoin traded around $57,000 on Friday morning, but by Saturday had fallen to around $43,000. By Sunday the world's largest cryptocurrency had recovered some of its losses, but it still traded below the key $50,000 level; it is currently trading around $49,058.

Data releases in Europe on Monday include German industrial orders in October, the euro zone sentix index for December and a first estimate of Greece's gross domestic product in the third quarter.

— CNBC's Pippa Stevens and Weizhen Tan contributed to this market report.