European stocks hovered just below flat on Monday, as investors adopted a cautious stance ahead of key US-China trade talks in London.
The negotiations, which began early afternoon and may continue into Tuesday, focus on easing restrictions: the US could lift limits on tech exports if China agrees to ease rare earth export controls.
Market reaction was muted, with major indices little changed.
SAP fell over 2% and ASML dropped more than 1%, while LVMH and Inditex gained nearly 1% each.
Linde, L’Oréal, Siemens, and Deutsche Telekom were mostly flat.
In corporate news, chip firm Alphawave surged 20% after announcing a $2.4 billion takeover by Qualcomm.
Spectris soared 60% following reports it’s in talks to be acquired by Advent International.
Meanwhile, at London Tech Week, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang committed to increasing investment in the UK’s AI sector, calling the environment a “Goldilocks” scenario for innovation.