Europe open: Stocks start the month higher ahead of US jobs report

Stocks have started September on the front foot after notching up a third straight month of losses in August amid slightly mixed readings on the euro area's manufacturing sector and ahead of the release of the all-important US jobs report for August.

As of 0841 BST, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was 0.45% or 1.67 points higher to 375.55, alongside an upside move of 0.42% or 50.41 points to 12,106.28 in the German Dax and a 0.73% or 36.94 gain for the French Cac-40 to 5,120.29.

In parallel, euro/dollar was down by -0.21% to 1.1884.

"Despite managing to post a second successive day of gains European stocks still finished lower for the third month in succession, having been unable to reverse all of the heavy losses seen at the beginning of the week.

"For now the downtrend that has been in place since the middle of the summer shows no signs of reversing, and while the euro continues to look as if it might head higher and through the 1.2000 level, it is hard to see how European stocks can break out of their summer malaise and start to head back towards their recent peaks," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.

IHS Markit's manufacturing sector purchasing managers index for Germany printed at 59.3 for August, down from a preliminary reading of 59.4 (consensus: 59.4), but nevertheless remained at elevated levels.

An equivalent gauge for Spain on the other hand was marked down from 54.0 to 52.4 (consensus: 54.4), its lowest reading since September 2016.

Commenting on the Spanish numbers, Andrew Harker, associate director at IHS Markit, said the signals from the survey were "mixed", with subindices for output and new orders at their weakest in almost a year pointing to a loss of momentum which would become worrying if sustained over the next few months.

Offsetting that 'miss', the same consultancy's PMI for Italy jumped from a reading of 55.1 to 56.3 (consensus: 55.3).

Not to be missed, due out later in the day was a barrage of first-tier economic indicators, aside from the US non-farm payrolls report at 1330 BST, including factory sector surveys from IHS Markit and ISM at 1445 and 1500 BST, respectively.

They would come alongside the University of Michigan's consumer confidence index and a reading on construction spending in July, both at 1500 BST.

Volkswagen is on the up in early trading after a California court rejected a lawsuit from the State of Wyoming for as much $1bn linked to the carmaker's recent emissions scandal.

Authorities in Rome pushed back the end date for their investigation into the growing influence of Vivendi over Telecom Italia from 4 September to 19 September.