European shares were mixed in choppy trading on Monday, amid escalating geopolitical tension after the U.S. joined Israel in striking Iran's nuclear facilities over the weekend. The pan-European STOXX 600 index (.STOXX), opens new tab edged down 0.01% at 536.57 points, as of 0900 GMT. The regional indexes were mixed – Germany (.GDAXI), opens new tab down 0.1%, France (.FCHI), opens new tab down 0.1%, Spain (.IBEX), opens new tab up 0.1%, and the UK (.FTSE), opens new tab up 0.04% Get a look at the day ahead in European and global markets with the Morning Bid Europe newsletter. Sign up here. Advertisement · Scroll to continue Report This Ad Iran said on Monday that the U.S. attack on its nuclear sites expanded the range of legitimate targets for its armed forces and called U.S. President Donald Trump a "gambler" for joining Israel's military campaign against the Islamic Republic. As the aerial attacks between Israel and Iran continued, markets feared that an Iranian retaliation to the U.S. attack may include a closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important oil artery. "Markets are definitely pricing in this risk to some extent, but it's quite obvious that it's not likely to be prominent because we're still seeing some positive momentum in equities," said Daniela Hathorn, senior market analyst at Capital.com. Advertisement · Scroll to continue "Closing the Strait of Hormuz is highly unlikely at this point because strategically it doesn't bode well for Iran," Hathorn added, noting that further retaliation from Iran also seems improbable at this time. Meanwhile, the July 8 U.S. tariff-pause deadline approaches with little progress on trade deals with Washington. Hathorn said despite Trump's tough talk, he made concessions earlier, leading markets to expect further negotiations. The euro zone economy flatlined for a second month in June, barely expanding, as the bloc's dominant services industry showed only a small sign of improvement and manufacturing displayed none at all, a survey showed on Monday. Another survey showed British business activity expanded modestly in June. Technology stocks (.SX8P), opens new tab led gains in the regional index, rising 0.6%. Oil and gas sector (.SXEP), opens new tab was up 0.3% as oil prices jumped on fears of supply disruption following the weekend strike on Iran. U.S. stocks finished mixed Friday in choppy trading with the Dow rising marginally while the S&P 500 fell two tenths of one percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq declined half of one percent.
Europe's aerospace and defence stocks (.SXPARO), opens new tab lost 0.9%. Among stocks, Spectris (SXS.L), opens new tab rose 14.9% after private equity firm Advent said it will acquire the scientific instruments maker in a deal valued at 4.4 billion pounds ($5.91 billion). Holcim (HOLN.S), opens new tab gained 11.1% after the Swiss building materials company completed the spin-off of its North American business Amrize . Shares in Novo Nordisk (NOVOb.CO), opens new tab fell 2.8% after the Danish drugmaker presented full results from two late-stage trials of its experimental weight-loss drug CagriSema. UCB (UCB.BR), opens new tab gained 4.4% after Morgan Stanley upgraded the biopharmaceutical company to "overweight" from "equal-weight".
