The European markets ended the first session of the new trading week with mixed results. Markets got off to a positive start, but pared their early gains after the planned merger between the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Bourse hit a roadblock.
However, the markets began to recover some ground following the open of the U.S. markets. U.S. President Donald Trump is set to make his first address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night and he is expected to give some clarity on his fiscal and tax policies.
Political concerns in Europe also gave investors pause at the start of the trading week. Brexit worries weighed as media reports suggested that U.K Prime Minister Theresa May's team is preparing for Scotland to potentially call for an independence referendum in March.
However, there is some respite surrounding France's presidential election as two weekend polls showed that France's independent presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron got his biggest lead over Republican Francois Fillon and began narrowing the gap with National Front leader Marine Le Pen.
The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index weakened by 0.10 percent. The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone blue chip stocks increased 0.16 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, lost 0.21 percent.
The DAX of Germany climbed 0.16 percent, but the CAC 40 of France fell 0.00 percent. The FTSE 100 of the U.K. gained 0.13 percent, but the SMI of Switzerland finished lower by 0.06 percent.
In Frankfurt, Deutsche Bank gained 1.41 percent after reports that the lender has cut its bonus pool for 2016 by almost 80 percent.
Stada rose 0.30 percent after the generic drug-maker said it is opening its books to potential acquirers.
In Paris, Sanofi SA finished lower by 0.19 percent. The drug giant entered into a strategic partnership with Lonza Group AG to establish a large-scale biologics production facility in Switzerland.
Oil major Total SA lost 1.04 percent after signing a pact for the sale of stakes and the transfer of operatorship in various mature assets in Gabon to Perenco.
In London, London Stock Exchange Group dropped 1.12 percent. Over the weekend, the company said its proposed merger with Deutsche Boerse, which runs the main German stock market, is unlikely to be approved by the European Commission. The plans for a combination were in the works for more than a year. Deutsche Boerse fell 3.80 percent in Frankfurt.
Disposable products supplier Bunzl gained 3.41 percent after reporting a rise in full-year pretax profit and raising dividend.
Persimmon advanced 0.25 percent after rising in early day as the homebuilder reported a 23 percent rise in 2016 pretax profit and said it is in a "good position" to deliver further growth in 2017.
Associated British Foods slid 0.92 percent after the food to clothing retail conglomerate maintained its earnings guidance.
Insurer Admiral slumped 2.46 percent and Direct Line plunged 7.16 percent after the government announced changes to a key discount rate used to calculate lump sum payouts.
Intesa Sanpaolo SpA climbed 6.36 percent in Milan after abandoning the plan for proposed combination with Assicurazioni Generali SpA. The Italian insurer fell 2.84 percent.
Eurozone economic confidence improved as expected in February, survey results from the European Commission showed Monday. The economic sentiment index rose marginally to 108.0 in February from 107.9 in January. The reading came in line with expectations.
Eurozone monetary aggregate growth slowed slightly in January, while loans to households increased at a faster pace, the European Central Bank reported Monday. The monetary aggregate M3 grew 4.9 percent year-on-year in January, slightly slower than the 5 percent increase seen in December.
Data showed that loans to the private sector logged an annual growth of 2.4 percent compared to 2.3 percent in December.
At the same time, the annual growth in loans to households improved to 2.2 percent from 2 percent in December and growth in loans to non-financial corporations held steady at 2.3 percent in January.
After reporting an unexpected drop in new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods in the previous month, the Commerce Department released a report on Monday showing a rebound in durable goods orders in the month of January.
The report said durable goods orders surged up by 1.8 percent in January after falling by a revised 0.8 percent in December. Economists had expected orders to climb by 1.7 percent compared to the 0.4 percent drop originally reported for the previous month.
Pending home sales in the U.S. unexpectedly plunged to their lowest level in a year in the month of January, according to a report released by the National Association of Realtors on Monday.
NAR said its pending home sales index tumbled by 2.8 percent to 106.4 in January after climbing by 0.8 percent to a revised 109.5 in December.
The steep drop by the index came as a surprise to economists, who had expected pending home sales to increase by 0.8 percent.
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