European markets turn lower after starting the new trading week with positive momentum

LONDON — European stocks started the new trading week on a positive note, buoyed by gains in Asia overnight and last Friday’s rally on Wall Street, before quickly paring gains.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index opened 0.56% higher Monday but pared gains to turn lower, down 0.2% in early trades. Banks and household goods are currently the only sectors in positive territory, up 0.2% and 0.4%, respectively.

Looking at individual stocks, shares of Rio Tinto were down 0.26% after the miner confirmed it was in talks to buy lithium producer Arcadium Lithium.

Shares of Italgas were down 0.4% after Italy’s biggest gas distributor said it expected double-digit growth in net income and core profit as part of a new plan, Reuters reported. This comes after it signed a 5.3 billion euro ($5.8 billion) deal to acquire rival 2i Rete Gas on Saturday.

On the data front in Europe Monday, the U.K.’s Halifax House Price Index showed British house prices rose in September at the fastest annual pace since November 2022.

Other data showed euro zone retail sales edged up in August, up 0.2% from the previous month and in line with a Reuters poll.  Jack Allen-Reynolds, deputy chief euro zone economist at Capital Economics noted Monday that “the available data suggest that euro-zone household spending was subdued in the third quarter and may well have fallen.”

European stocks looked set to continue the positive sentiment seen at the close of trade last week, with markets getting a boost from the latest U.S. jobs report that exceeded expectations. Nonfarm payrolls data showed the U.S. economy added 254,000 jobs in September, ahead of the 150,000 estimated by economists polled by Dow Jones.

Asia-Pacific markets mostly climbed overnight, led by Japan’s Nikkei 225 rising almost 2% as investors look ahead to a week of central bank decisions from around the region, including from the Bank of Korea, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and the Reserve Bank of India.

U.S. stock futures were calm on Sunday evening as Wall Street looks to keep the momentum from Friday’s rally following a stronger-than-expected jobs report on Friday that gave more support to the idea that the Federal Reserve may pull off a “soft landing” for the U.S. economy.