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Europe open: Stocks little changed, politics in focus
Stocks are little changed at the start of trading as traders digest news of the US federal government shutdown over the weekend, as well as the decision taken by delegates from Germany's SPD party to start formal talks with the CDU/CSU on creating a grand coalition.
As of 0945 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was edging higher by 0.02% or 0.07 points to 400.95, alongside a dip of 0.07% or 10.01 points to 13,424.65 for the German Dax, while the Cac-40 was 0.11% or 6.05 points lower to 5,520.46.
Economists were confident that the US government shutdown would not have much impact on the economy, but in the longer-term the inability to avoid such an outcome reflected the increasingly fractious politics in the States.
Meanwhile, in Germany, despite SPD delegates' decision to begin negotiations with their main political rivals, any deal would yet need to be put to a vote before all of the party's members before it could be implemented. Hence, there was still a risk that new elections would be called.
"Furthermore, dysfunctional US politics isn't really anything new, in fact dysfunctional politics appears to be becoming the norm, not only in the US, but the world over, even if in Germany we do appear to be starting to make progress on the formation of a new government [...]
"The SPD still remains broadly split in trying to craft an agreement with Mrs Merkel with only 56% of the party voting to begin talks. This would suggest that any coalition, if it is formed, is likely to be a fairly fragile one, and before that even happens any deal that is put together would have to be once again put to a vote of SPD members," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.
There was little on the economic calendar for Monday, although at their regularly-scheduled meeting later in the day euro area finance ministers were expected to assess Greece's compliance with the terms of its bailout package. A positive assessment might see the so-called Eurogroup sign off on about 6.7bn of new loans for Athens.
To take note of, after the close of markets on Friday, Standard&Poor's raised its rating on Greece's long-term sovereign debt to B with a positive outlook.
Spanish sovereign debt also got a boost after Fitch Ratings raised its view on that country's debt by one notch to A-, with a stable outlook.
In corporate news, at the weekend Deutsche Telekom's finance chief told Boersen Zeitung the company would keep its promise to raise dividends in 2018 and thereafter.
Further south, Atlantia and Hochtief continued to manoeuvre to gain the upper hand in their ongoing battle to take control of Spanish toll-road operator Abertis.
On Friday, Atlantia said it would call a shareholder meeting to vote on changes to its bid for Abertis.
According to reports, Airbus is negotiating with British Airways the possible sale of A380 jets.
In notable broker recommendations, analysts at Credit Suisse cut their earnings per share estimates for Spanish lender BBVA in 2018 and 2019 by 7% and 10%, respectively, but upped their target price on its stock from 6.7 to 7.5.