European stock indices experienced widespread losses at the start of the first trading session of the week on Monday, amid fears raised by the unexpectedly strong U.S. jobs data for December. This heightened speculation that borrowing costs may remain high as the U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to halt interest rate cuts in the coming months.
At the start of today's session, the performance of the main European stock indices was as follows: The general European stock index, Euro Stoxx 600, fell by 0.77% to record 507.57 points. The French CAC 40 index dropped by approximately 0.61% to reach 7,385.85 points. The German DAX index decreased by 0.70% to 20,072.74 points. The British FTSE 100 index fell by 0.25% to 8,228.65 points. The Italian FTSE MIB index dropped by 0.74% to record 34,831.65 points. The Spanish IBEX 35 index declined by around 0.55% to 11,657.70 points. The losses in the main Euro Stoxx index were driven by declines in the healthcare and technology sectors, with the healthcare sector index dropping by approximately 1.1%, while the technology sector index fell by 1.7%. However, energy sector stocks rose by 0.8% amid the increase in oil prices.
The shares of the French company STMicroelectronics led the losses with a decline of 3.98%, followed by shares of the British airline International Consolidated Airlines, which fell by 3.76%, and then shares of the Italian sports car manufacturer Ferrari, which dropped by about 3.6%.
