European stock indices traded mostly lower on Monday, helped by positive sentiment in Asia, but pressured by talk of new sanctions against Russia.

By 03:25 a.m. ET (07:25 GMT), Germany’s DAX was trading 0.6 percent lower, France’s CAC 40 was down 0.6 percent and Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.1 percent.

Some European Union governments are now thinking about new sanctions against Moscow.

Germany’s defense minister said on Sunday that the European Union should discuss a ban on Russian gas imports: such a move would have serious economic consequences for the growth of the European economy, given the dependence of several eurozone countries, particularly Germany, on Moscow for energy supplies.

The talk overshadowed the strong performance of stock indices in Asia and, in particular, shares of Chinese technology companies in Hong Kong, which rose on Monday after Beijing announced plans to remove a key obstacle to full U.S. access to audits of Chinese companies listed in that country.

The changes could reduce the risk of Chinese companies being delisted from Wall Street stock exchanges, a possibility that has weighed heavily on the entire sector.

As for Europe, European producer price data for February will be released a little later in the session and is expected to show a strong year-over-year increase of 27%, further illustrating the pressure the European Central Bank is under after data last week showed that eurozone consumer inflation hit a new record high of 7.5% in March.

The ECB is set to release the minutes of its March meeting on Thursday, and they will be scrutinized ahead of the bank’s upcoming meeting on April 14.

In terms of corporate news, Novartis (SIX:NOVN) shares rose 0.8% after the Swiss drugmaker said it will integrate its pharmaceutical and oncology divisions into its innovative healthcare business to simplify the structure to save at least $1 billion by 2024.

Shares of rival drugmaker Roche (SIX:RO) rose 1.5% after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave its drug for the treatment of COVID-19 in hospitalized adults priority review.

Oil prices rose on Monday, recouping some of their huge losses last week as a number of major consuming nations, led by the U.S., announced plans to release oil from their strategic stockpiles in an attempt to curb rising prices.

Late last week, the U.S. announced plans to release 1 million barrels a day for six months starting in May, while members of the International Energy Agency also agreed to produce more oil.

By 02:30 am ET (07:30 GMT), WTI crude futures were trading higher by 1% to $100.30 per barrel, while the Brent contract was up 1% to $105.47. Both benchmarks recorded weekly losses of about 13% last week.

In addition, gold futures rose 0.3% to $1930.20 an ounce, while EUR/USD fell 0.2% to 1.1036.