Sawt Falasteen - Stocks markets diverge after rally

Wall Street opened higher after two of the three main US indices hit record peaks on Friday.

In Asia, Tokyo's key Nikkei index closed at a fresh all-time high, after beating a record Friday that had stood since 1989.

European stock markets were mixed, with London and Paris in the red in afternoon deals while Frankfurt pushed higher.

Last week's strong gains were fuelled by stellar results from US technology titan Nvidia, a bellwether for artificial intelligence. The company's shares were up two percent at $803 in early deals on Monday.

"It has been a quiet start to the week as investors continue to come down from the 'sugar rush' supplied by Nvidia's earnings report after Wednesday's close," said David Morrison, senior market analyst at financial services provider Trade Nation.

Investors were now looking ahead to the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation, the US Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) price index due Thursday.

The data may give a clearer handle on when the US central bank will start cutting interest rates following upticks in other inflation gauges, the consumer price index and the producer price index.

"If Core PCE were to follow the CPI and PPI by ticking higher then it may trigger some profit-taking," Morrison said.

"But for now, investors appear sanguine about stocks at record levels," he said.

Following publication of the PCE, focus will turn to Chinese manufacturing data due Friday.

China's economy is in the doldrums and losses in Shanghai Monday came despite Beijing saying it wanted to boost sales of cars, appliances and other consumer products in "piecemeal incentives to stimulate the economy", noted Rodrigo Catril, senior currencies strategist at National Australia Bank.

Government interventions have stabilised the market, with Chinese stocks rebounding from early February lows.

But underlying weakness means "investors are crying out for larger economic supports to be rolled out", Harry Murphy Cruise from Moody's Analytics told AFP.

Market players are watching to see if extra spending and an ambitious growth target will be announced in March to help China's economy gain momentum through the year, according to Cruise.

- Key figures around 1445 GMT -

New York - Dow: UP 0.3 percent at 39,230.35 points

New York - S&P 500: UP 0.1 percent at 5,092.15

New York - Nasdaq: UP less than 0.1 percent at 16.003.09

London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.1 percent at 7,698.77

Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 0.4 percent at 7,935.96

Frankfurt - DAX: UP 0.1 percent at 17,434.83

EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 0.2 percent at 4,862.68

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.3 percent at 39,233.71 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.5 percent at 16,634.74 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.9 percent at 2,977.02 (close)

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0848 from $1.0824 on Friday

Dollar/yen: UP at 150.69 yen from 150.53 yen

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2684 from $1.2672

Euro/pound: UP at 85.51 pence from 85.39 pence

Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.2 percent at $81.46 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: FLAT at $76.46 per barrel

T.Khatib--SF-PST