People walk along London Bridge past the City of London skyline.
LONDON — European stocks were lower Monday, starting the week and the final trading session of September in negative territory.
The pan-European Euro Stoxx 600 was down 0.79% at around 10:45 a.m. London time, with auto stocks the biggest laggards, down 3.8%.
Milan-listed shares of Dodge-maker Stellantis shed 13.5% after the automaker trimmed its 2024 annual guidance amid deteriorating "global industry dynamics" and bolstered competition from China.
France's Renault traded more than 6% lower on Monday, while German automakers Porsche and Volkswagen were both down around 3%.
The lackluster start for European markets comes after the pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed at a fresh record high on Friday, as stocks got a boost from China's announcement last week of a range of stimulus measures that aim to boost the economy.
Overnight in the Asia-Pacific region, stocks in mainland China spiked over 8% while Japan's Nikkei 225 tumbled nearly 5%, as investors assessed key economic data from the two countries.
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Money Report
China's official purchasing managers' index reading came in at 49.8 for September, better than the 49.5 expected by economists polled by Reuters. However, the print marked a fifth straight month of contraction for the manufacturing sector in China.
Separate data from Japan showed industrial production in the country dropped 4.9% year on year in August, exceeding the 0.4% fall of the previous month.
U.S. stock futures were little changed Monday after major U.S. averages logged their third consecutive week of gains.
UK house prices jump
Back in Europe, preliminary data showed inflation eased across key German states this month. The inflation rate in North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, fell to 1.5% year-on-year in September, down from 1.7% in August, Reuters reported.
The figures are likely to boost the chances of another interest rate cut from the European Central Bank (ECB). Last week, preliminary data showed the harmonized inflation rate in both France and Spain plunged below the ECB's 2% target in September.
Elsewhere, U.K. house prices rose at their fastest annual pace in two years in September, according to figures published Monday from mortgage lender Nationwide.
The average property price rose by an annual rate of 3.2% this month, up from 2.4% in August, notching the fastest rate since November 2022. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a rise of 2.7% in September.
— CNBC's Lim Hui Jie contributed to this market report.
