(Alliance News) - London's FTSE 100 is set to open a touch higher on Monday, clawing back some of Friday's losses, at the start of a week when focus will be on the latest European Central Bank decision and a US inflation reading.

IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 to open 11.2 points higher, 0.1%, at 7,922.36 on Monday. The index of London large-caps closed down 64.73 points, 0.8%, at 7,911.16 on Friday. It fell 0.5% across the whole of last week.

In Tokyo on Monday, the Nikkei 225 was up 0.8% in late dealings. The Shanghai Composite was down 0.4%, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong was up 0.1%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney added 0.2%.

In New York on Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.8%, the S&P 500 added 1.1% and the Nasdaq Composite surged 1.2%.

The gains came on the back of a robust US jobs report. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nonfarm payroll employment rose by 303,000 in March, higher than the FXStreet-cited consensus of 200,000.

The figure for February was revised down by 5,000, from 275,000 to 270,000 while January's total was adjusted upwards by 27,000, from 229,000 to 256,000. This means employment in January and February combined was 22,000 higher than previously reported.

"Despite a home run headline NFP print, Friday's surge in equities provided some relief, sparing cross-asset investors from experiencing another meltdown thanks to the offset in average hourly earnings, which was in line with expectations," SPI Asset Management analyst Stephen Innes commented.

"After warmer-than-expected January and February inflation prints and yet another barnburner NFP, the big question is whether The Federal Reserve is reaching a threshold in its tolerance for robust economic data and sticky inflation."

Wednesday's data is expected to show that the rate of US annual consumer price inflation picked up to 3.4% last month, from 3.2% in February.

The pound was quoted at USD1.2631 early Monday, rising from USD1.2621 at the time of the London equities close on Friday. The euro edged up to USD1.0835 from USD1.0831. Against the yen, the dollar climbed to JPY151.79 from JPY151.54.

A barrel of Brent oil fetched USD89.64 early Monday, down markedly from USD91.31 late Friday. Gold was quoted at USD2,335.41 an ounce, rising from USD2,325.89.

Monday's economic events calendar has a German industrial production reading at 0700 BST.

The UK corporate diary has full year results from mobile commerce company Bango.

On Friday, the US banking earnings season kicks off, with JPMorgan among those reporting.

By Eric Cunha, Alliance News news editor

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