London — European stock markets inched higher on Monday as expectations for a flurry of bumper corporate earnings and merger speculation outweighed fears about the escalating trade conflict between Beijing and Washington. Data showing China’s economy and factory production growth had slowed hurt Asian markets at the start of the week, as investors fret an escalating trade battle between China and the US may soon start to hurt the real economy. But European shares mostly opened higher, although the gains were marginal. Germany’s DAX was the biggest riser, up half a percent before giving up most of those gains. France’s CAC 40 rose 0.16% and the pan-European STOXX 600 0.23%. Basic resources and autos were among the worst-performing sectors. Both rely on solid Chinese growth, but merger speculation concerning industrials helped outweigh the Chinese data. The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 47 countries, was flat on the day. "The numbers were not way out of line and slow...
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