Investing.com - European stocks declined on Monday, as concerns over financial troubles in Spain and Greece continued to dampen market sentiment, while trade was expected to remain light with markets in the U.S. closed as a result of Hurricane Sandy.
During European morning trade, the EURO STOXX 50 retreated 0.69%, France’s CAC 40 tumbled 0.86%, while Germany’s DAX 30 dropped 0.46%.
Markets were jittery amid ongoing uncertainty over whether Spain is preparing to request a bailout from its euro zone partners, which would activate a bond buying program by the European Central Bank.
Meanwhile, doubts over whether Greece can meet austerity targets demanded by the troika mounted after the country’s opposition leaders said his party would vote against an austerity package expected to go before parliament later this week.
Trading activity was expected to remain thin on Monday, as a result of the first unscheduled, market-wide shut down since September 2001, as Hurricane Sandy approached the northeastern U.S.
Financial stocks were broadly lower, as shares in French lenders BNP Paribas and Societe Generale retreated 0.41% and 0.81%, while Germany's Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank fell 0.09% and 0.27% respectively.
Peripheral lenders added to losses, with Italian banks Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo tumbling 2.01% and 1.73%, while Spains's BBVA and Banco Santander dropped 0.72% and 0.52%.
On the upside, French retailer Carrefour saw shares climb 0.81%, after saying it agreed to sell its Colombian operations to Chile-based Cencosud for EUR2 billion, including debt, by the end of the year.
In London, FTSE 100 slid 0.37%, mostly weighed by losses in financial stocks.
Shares in the Royal Bank of Scotland plummeted 1.30% after the U.K. lender put Ken Choy, a director in its emerging markets foreign exchange trading unit, on leave, as part of an internal probe into the manipulation of non-deliverable forwards, a derivative traders use to speculate on the movement of currencies that are subject to domestic foreign exchange restrictions.
Meanwhile, Lloyds Banking plunged 1.36% and Barclays dropped 0.93%. HSBC Holdings outperformed its counterparts on the other hand, with shares adding 0.10%.
Elsewhere, mining stocks were also on the downside, as Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton slumped 0.83% and 0.71%, while copper producers Xstrata and Kazakhmys declined 0.81% and 1.04% respectively.
In the U.S., equity markets pointed to a lower open. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pointed to a 0.46% drop, S&P 500 futures signaled a 0.50% decline, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a 0.59% loss.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release government data on personal income, personal spending and core consumer inflation.
During European morning trade, the EURO STOXX 50 retreated 0.69%, France’s CAC 40 tumbled 0.86%, while Germany’s DAX 30 dropped 0.46%.
Markets were jittery amid ongoing uncertainty over whether Spain is preparing to request a bailout from its euro zone partners, which would activate a bond buying program by the European Central Bank.
Meanwhile, doubts over whether Greece can meet austerity targets demanded by the troika mounted after the country’s opposition leaders said his party would vote against an austerity package expected to go before parliament later this week.
Trading activity was expected to remain thin on Monday, as a result of the first unscheduled, market-wide shut down since September 2001, as Hurricane Sandy approached the northeastern U.S.
Financial stocks were broadly lower, as shares in French lenders BNP Paribas and Societe Generale retreated 0.41% and 0.81%, while Germany's Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank fell 0.09% and 0.27% respectively.
Peripheral lenders added to losses, with Italian banks Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo tumbling 2.01% and 1.73%, while Spains's BBVA and Banco Santander dropped 0.72% and 0.52%.
On the upside, French retailer Carrefour saw shares climb 0.81%, after saying it agreed to sell its Colombian operations to Chile-based Cencosud for EUR2 billion, including debt, by the end of the year.
In London, FTSE 100 slid 0.37%, mostly weighed by losses in financial stocks.
Shares in the Royal Bank of Scotland plummeted 1.30% after the U.K. lender put Ken Choy, a director in its emerging markets foreign exchange trading unit, on leave, as part of an internal probe into the manipulation of non-deliverable forwards, a derivative traders use to speculate on the movement of currencies that are subject to domestic foreign exchange restrictions.
Meanwhile, Lloyds Banking plunged 1.36% and Barclays dropped 0.93%. HSBC Holdings outperformed its counterparts on the other hand, with shares adding 0.10%.
Elsewhere, mining stocks were also on the downside, as Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton slumped 0.83% and 0.71%, while copper producers Xstrata and Kazakhmys declined 0.81% and 1.04% respectively.
In the U.S., equity markets pointed to a lower open. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pointed to a 0.46% drop, S&P 500 futures signaled a 0.50% decline, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a 0.59% loss.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release government data on personal income, personal spending and core consumer inflation.