European shares edged lower on Monday as investors stayed cautious ahead of major corporate earnings this week, with nerves around rising interest rates and escalating geopolitical tensions also weighing on sentiment.
The region-wide STOXX 600 index was briefly in positive territory before closing down 0.4% and extending losses to a fourth straight session.
Geopolitical concerns festered on Monday after Russia launched its most widespread air strikes since the start of the Ukraine war, in what President Vladimir Putin called revenge for the explosion on the Crimea bridge.
The STOXX 600 has fallen more than 3% in the past four sessions on concerns about aggressive monetary policy tightening by central banks hampering economic growth, with data on Friday showing strong U.S. jobs growth dousing hopes of a pivot by the Federal Reserve anytime soon.
“We’ve got high inflation, we’ve got central banks acting aggressively and an ever increasing conflict in Ukraine which has no signs of stabilising. There’s not really any sort of positivity at the moment,” said Michael Baker, head of online services at Oval Money.
With markets now largely pricing in a 75-basis-point rate hike from the Fed next month, investors are looking to third-quarter earnings reports this week, including from major banks, to gauge the impact of price pressures and the outlook for economic growth.
“Every single sector is under pressure at the moment. Inflation is creeping everywhere as well as what we’re seeing in the war scene over in Ukraine, so it’s a little bit gloomy,” Baker said.
Meanwhile, the French central bank trimmed its economic growth estimate for the country, owing to poor industrial activity. France’s CAC 40 index was down 0.5%.
Technology stocks fell 1.9%, leading declines among STOXX 600 sectors, followed by the real estate sector. However, they were countered to some extent by gains in chemicals and retail stocks.
ASML Holding was the biggest drag on the index as chipmakers fell after Washington introduced export controls, including a measure to cut China off from certain semiconductor chips.
Shares of other European chipmakers including Infineon and BE Semiconductor also fell between 1% and 3%.
China-exposed European luxury companies Burberry, Kering, LVMH, Hermes and Richemont slid between 1% and 2% as Chinese holiday spending slumped and the domestic COVID-19 situation worsened over the National Day Golden week.
However, Renault SA climbed 2.4% after the French carmaker and its Japanese partner Nissan said they were holding “trustful discussions” about the future of their alliance.
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