European stocks wavered on Monday following their recent winning streak. The market remained cautious after additional Federal Reserve officials declared on Friday that U.S. interest rates are likely to keep high until evidence of declining inflation rate appears. Investors eagerly awaited key U.S. inflation data and a speech from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in the coming week for further insights on the Fed's interest rate pathway.
In April, China's consumer inflation increased for the third consecutive month, while the producer price index declined for the 19th month in a row, as recent data indicates.
The collective European STOXX 600 edged lower at 520.50 after gaining 0.8% on Friday. The DAX in Germany dropped by 0.2%, France's CAC 40 lightened by 0.1% and the UK's FTSE 100 also marginally descended.
In London, Diploma shares soared by 5% following the release of positive half-year results by the technical products supplier, which also boosted its sales and earnings predictions. Victrex, a high-performance polymers group, rose by 1.3% in the wake of forecasting a second-half improvement after first-half profits fell by one third.
Mission Group saw a 5.2% increase after the digital marketing agency turned down a takeover offer from its rival, Brave Bison. Sanofi, a French pharmaceutical giant, gained 1.2% after announcing an investment of over 1 billion euros to expand its bioproduction capacity across various sites in France.
German IT firm Q.beyond increased by 1.1% on the back of a reduced Q1 loss and confirmation of their 2024 predictions. Conversely, IT services provider Adesso SE saw a 4% plunge after reporting a consolidated loss of 3.30 million euros in the first quarter, in contrast to the 2.02 million euro profit of the previous year.
Finally, electronics retailer Ceconomy witnessed a near 1% rise after projecting that its adjusted earnings for fiscal 2024 are set to outpace analysts' predictions.