The main European stock markets are up in early trading on Tuesday as they await the first estimate of German inflation in December.

In Paris, the CAC 40 gained 0.66% to 6,637.93 points around 08:45 GMT. In London, which reopened after a long weekend, the FTSE 100 gained 1.65%, while in Frankfurt, the Dax advanced by 0.70%.

The EuroStoxx 50 index is up 0.80%, the FTSEurofirst 300 1.04% and the Stoxx 600 1.17%.

At 13:00 GMT, European investors will be watching for the first German inflation figures for December, which could reassure them that prices are decelerating, with the Reuters consensus giving a 10.7% year-on-year rise after 11.3% in November.

Later in the week, they will get further indications on the health of the economy with the PMI indexes on services activity and the official US employment report for December. On Wednesday, the focus will be on the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting.

Citi strategists said that the "minutes" could reveal divergences between doves and hawks over their terminal rate estimates.

On the stock market, penalized by Jefferies' move from "buy" to "hold", Thales shares

lost 1.46%, posting the biggest drop on the CAC 40.

GTT was down 3.46%, having announced the closure of its Russian operations.

At the top of the Dax, chemical distributor Brenntag gained 4.91% after ending discussions for the possible purchase of American Univar.

. (Laetitia Volga, edited by Kate Entringer)