European shares closed lower on Monday, giving back Friday’s gains on optimism around US monetary policy easing, while JDE Peet’s soared on a buyout deal.
Dublin
The Irish market opened the week on a negative note, with the Iseq down almost a quarter of a per cent by the close of the day.
AIB and Bank of Ireland shed 0.4 per cent and 0.3 per cent respectively, while Permanent TSB gained 0.4 per cent, albeit on thinner volumes.
Kerry Group was marginally higher on the day, gaining 0.4 per cent, but fellow food group Glanbia was down 1.3 per cent to €14.10.
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Insulation specialist Kingspan lost 1.65 per cent by the end of the day, while Ryanair was largely flat at €26.60. Among other gainers, Cairn Homes, Glenveagh Properties and Ires Reit all closed higher on Monday.
London
The UK market was closed for a public holiday.
Europe
The pan-European STOXX 600 index closed 0.4 per cent lower in its worst day in over three weeks but was about 1 per cent away from record highs.
Germany’s DAX dropped 0.4 per cent and France’s CAC 40 slid 1.6 per cent.
Construction and materials stocks were the heaviest drags on the index, with Nibe Industrier down 7.9 per cent.
Utilities logged their steepest decline in more than a month. Orsted plunged 16.4 per cent to a record low after the US halted the Danish company’s Revolution Wind project off Rhode Island amid President Donald Trump’s pushback on renewable energy investments.
Peers such as Vestas Wind, EDP Renovaveis and Siemens Energy also lost ground.
Coffee company JDE Peet’s touched a near three-year peak and was last up 17.5 per cent, after Keurig Dr Pepper agreed a deal to buy the company for €15.7 billion in cash.
Puma surged 15.9 per cent after Bloomberg reported that the holding company of France’s Pinault family was weighing options for its 29 per cent stake in the German sportswear maker, including sounding out potential buyers.
Argenx rose 4.3 per cent after RBC started coverage with “outperform” on strong belief in its Vyvgart medicine.
Valneva slumped 22.2 per cent after the US drug regulator suspended the French drugmaker’s licence for chikungunya vaccine Ixchiq with immediate effect.
New York
Wall Street’s main indexes were mixed on Monday as investors weighed US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell’s hints of a near-term interest-rate cut and looked ahead to AI leader Nvidia’s quarterly earnings later in the week.
Mr Powell’s comments nudged big brokerages to revise their expectations, with Barclays, BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank currently seeing a 25-basis-point reduction in borrowing costs next month.
By late in the morning the Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen 238.55 points, or 0.52 per cent, to 45,393.19, the S&P 500 lost 6.03 points, or 0.09 per cent, to 6,460.88, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 54.05 points, or 0.25 per cent, to 21,550.58.
Seven of the 11 S&P 500 subsectors edged lower. Consumer staples, healthcare and utilities – often traded as bond proxies – fell about 1 per cent each as yields on Treasury bonds edged higher.
Traders are awaiting AI darling Nvidia’s earnings on Wednesday to see if its $4 trillion valuation is justified.
The potential impact on Nvidia’s forecasts from its recent revenue-sharing deal with the US government will be closely watched. The chip major’s shares edged up 1.8 per cent, boosting the broader tech sector.
In deals-related moves, beverage company Keurig Dr Pepper slid 7.7 per cent after announcing the JDE Peet’s for $18.4 billion (€15.8 billion) in cash.
Furniture retailers RH and Wayfair declined about 5 per cent each after US President Donald Trump said on Friday his administration would investigate furniture import tariffs.
Intel inched up 1.1 per cent after Trump said the US government was taking a stake in the chipmaker. He also said he would make other deals similar to the one with Intel. – Additional reporting: Reuters
