European Stocks Close Mostly Lower

(RTTNews) - European stocks closed mostly lower on Monday with investors trying to assess the possible interest rate moves by major central banks, and awaiting crucial inflation data for directional clues.

The Fed left interest rates unchanged last Wednesday as widely expected, and signaled plans to cut interest rates three times next year.

However, hopes for near-term interest rate cuts in the U.S. faded a bit after New York Federal Reserve President John Williams said the Fed is not "really talking about rate cuts right now" and is focused on whether monetary policy is sufficiently restrictive to ensure inflation comes back down to 2%.

Meanwhile, the Bank of England warned of prolonged restrictive policy.

The pan European Stoxx 600 dropped 0.28%. Germany's DAX ended down 0.63%, France's CAC 40 settled lower by 0.41%, and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained 0.55%. Switzerland's SMI drifted down 0.32%.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Greece, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Turkiye closed weak.

Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Poland and Russia ended higher.

In the UK market, Fresnillo tumbled nearly 7%. Just Eat Takeway.com and Berkeley Holdings ended lower by 3.8% and 3.6%, respectively.

Barratt Developments, Spirax-Sarco Engineering, Croda International, Mondi, Kingfisher, Prudential, IAG, Ashtead Group, TUI and Natwest Group lost 1 to 2.3%.

CRH ended lower by 1% after it joined hands with the Barro Group to acquire Australian cement manufacturing company Adbri.

Vodafone gained about 3.7% after Iliad Group put forward a proposal to the company to merge their Italian businesses in a deal valuing Vodafone Italia at 10.45 billion euros ($11.38 billion).

Entain rallied more than 5%, and Antofagasta advanced nearly 2%. Whitbread, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, GSK, AstraZeneca, ICP, BAE Systems, Relx, Rio Tinto, Hikma Pharmaceuticals and Rolls-Royce Holdings gained 1 to 1.8%.

In the German market, Infineon ended nearly 3% down. Siemens Energy, Zalando, E.ON, Vonovia, BMW, Siemens, Fresenius Medical Care, RWE, HeidelbergCement, Mercedes-Benz, Fresenius, Volkswagen and Sartorius lost 1 to 2.5%.

Deutsche Boerse and Symrise gained about 1.8% and 1.5%, respectively. Covestro, Beiersdorf, Merck and Henkel also ended notably higher.

In Paris, Bouygues, STMicroElectronics, Kering, Saint-Gobain, Vinci and Veolia ended lower by 2 to 3%. Capgemini, Eurofins Scientific, Hermes International, BNP Paribas, LVMH and Publicis Group also ended notably lower.

Arcelor Mittal gained about 5.5%. Teleperformance, TotalEnergies and Sanofi climbed 1.2 to 1.7%.

Shares of Dutch chemicals maker OCI soared 21% after the company announced the sale of its 50% stake in Fertiglobe to Abu Dhabi National Oil Company P.J.S.C.

On the economic front, Germany's business sentiment deteriorated unexpectedly in December, according to survey results from the ifo Institute.

The business climate index fell to 86.4 in December from a revised score of 87.2 in the previous month. The score was forecast to improve to 87.8. Both current assessment and expectations among companies deteriorated at the end of the year.