European stocks fell slightly at the opening of the first trading session this week, as investors braced for monetary decisions from the Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan and the Bank of England.

Volatility rose on Monday, as stocks in the cyclical consumer, real estate and technology sectors led most European Union benchmark indexes lower ahead of another busy week.

However, on the technical front, today’s price action still does not pose a threat to bullish investors, as it can be considered a “usual” corrective move after the strong recovery that began last week.

The STOXX-50 index is challenging the newly set threshold between 4265.0 points and 4280.0 points, where investors appear to be strong enough to prevent the market from falling just yet. The short-term uptrend will remain in place as long as no breach is recorded below this level.

With major macroeconomic events this week, we expect market volatility to remain high as investors will try to assess the direction of monetary policies following the general interest rate decisions and statements from the Federal Reserve, Bank of Japan and Bank of England, following dovish suggestions made by the European Central Bank last week.

Pierre Verret
Technical Analyst at ActivTrades