Europe seen mixed as markets digest jobs data

Europe shares are expected to open mixed on Monday, with investors pausing to digest the latest U.S. jobs data.

The FTSE is seen down 11 points at 6,490, the DAX up 7 points at 9,655 and the French CAC down 3 points at 4,176.

European markets look set to follow the mixed trend in Asian stock markets after Friday's U.S. nonfarm payrolls report gave a mixed view of the U.S. economy.

The December jobs report topped expectations, but hourly earnings declined. Figures from the Labor Department showed the U.S. economy added 252,000 to payrolls last month, after generating an unexpectedly strong 353,000 jobs in November. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, dropped to 5.6 percent. Wall Street closed in the red following the data.

Meanwhile, the decline in global oil prices is likely to add to gloom in Europe. Brent crude and U.S. crude are at their lowest levels since April 2009 on the back of an over-supply in the market and lack of demand.

Investors continue to ponder the outcome of the European Central Bank (ECB) meeting on January 22, with expectations rising that the central bank will announce a full-scale quantitative easing (QE) program.

Italy's central bank chief Ignazio Visco has added to the clamour for sovereign bond purchases, telling German newspaper, Welt Am Sonntag, that the risk of deflation in the euro zone should not be underestimated and the best way for the ECB to deal with the problem is buying government bonds.

In other news, France is recovering from last week's terrorist attacks in the capital Paris. Around 3.7 million people, including world leaders and statesmen, joined a mass rally in Paris on Sunday to remember the 17 victims of three separate attacks in Paris last week.

Elsewhere, a team of Indonesian navy divers have retrieved one of the two black boxes from an AirAsia airliner that crashed two weeks ago, killing all 162 people on board, a government official told reporters at a news conference Monday, according to Reuters.

Global sales figures for 2014 are due from Jaguar Land Rover and BMW. There are no major economic data due from the euro zone.