Europe open: Stocks track record highs on Wall Street, Ibex 35 pacing early gains

Stocks on the Continent have begun the session moving slightly higher, tracking gains on Wall Street.

In the background, meantime, traders were waiting on a US Senate hearing on the confirmation of the White House's choice to be the next Fed chief, Jerome Powell, and the Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries's 30 November ministerial meeting.

Against that backdrop, as of 0930 GMT the benchmark Stoxx 600 was edging higher by 1.12 points to 387.75, alongside a 0.26% or 34.0 point rise for the German Dax to 13,093.19.

Commenting on the situation in equity markets at the beginning of the week, Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said: "All three major US benchmarks posted new record highs and closes last week with the S&P500 closing above 2,600 as investors once again placed their faith that we'll see some form of tax reform or tax cuts by the end of the year.

"This still seems unlikely given that US politicians still need to agree on raising the debt ceiling in the coming days, something that US investors appear to have forgotten about in their fixation about tax cuts."

As as aside, according to the results of a poll undertaken by Metroscopia for Spanish daily El Pais, only 24% of Catalans wish to continue to push ahead with the drive for independence which began in 2012.

Perhaps on the back of that news, the Spanish Ibex 35 was 0.77% or 77.60 points ahead to 10,123.50.

On the economic front, ISTAT's gauge of Italian consumer confidence slipped from 116.0 for October to 114.3 in November (consensus: 116.5).

Meanwhile, on the corporate front, BMW disclosed plans to stay ahead of its competitors.

Speaking to Handelsblatt, the automaker's finance director said it would boost its spending on R&D this year to between 6.5% and 7.0% of sales, above a target for 5.5%.

Elsewhere, Thyssenkrupp's managers and labour leaders were reportedly trying to mend fences as they pursued a resolution of their dispute over planned layoffs linked to its merger with Tata Steel.

Airbus was also in the spotlight, with Bloomberg reporting at the weekend that Rolls Royce may announce as soon as Tuesday that it was joining forces with the aircraft manufacturer and Siemens to develop hybrid jet engines.

In parallel, another report indicated Airbus had tapped Eric Schulz, the boss of Rolls Royce's civil engines division, to lead its commercial jetline sales.

Fiat Chrysler may pursue a public listing for 50% of its Magneti Marelli unit on the Milan stock exchange in 2018, Il Sole 24 Ore said on Saturday.