Regent Street in London celebrating the Christmas season on November 13, 2025 in London, England.
Ben Montgomery | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
LONDON — European stock markets started the last trading month of the year in negative territory.
of Stocks 600 Monday started in negative territory, with the pan-European benchmark falling 0.3% shortly after 8:30 a.m. London (3:30 a.m. ET), with major exchanges and sectors in the red.
Regional markets closed in positive territory on Friday, at the end of a volatile month for stocks as concerns about AI’s high valuations resurfaced.
Uncertainty over monetary policy also weighed on sentiment last month, but investors now expect the U.S. Federal Reserve to cut interest rates at its Dec. 9-10 meeting. Traders are pricing in an 87.4% chance of a quarter-point rate cut, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
European defense stocks fell sharply on Monday as investors focused on progress towards a peace deal in Ukraine this week. line metal As of around 8:25 a.m. ET (3:25 a.m. ET), Lenk was down 2.4%, Lenk was down almost 3.8% and Hensoldt was down about 3.2%.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff traveled to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Kremlin officials. The talks came after Ukraine announced it had approved in principle a 19-point peace plan backed by the United States. The plan was a revised version of the original 28-point plan devised in secret by the United States and Russia, and appeared to favor Russia.
Ukrainian and U.S. officials, led by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, held further talks in Florida over the weekend. Rubio said the talks were “very productive” but that more work remains to be done.
precious metal miner Fresnillo It led European stocks in early trading on Monday, rising 3.1% as gold hit a six-week high at the start of a new trading month. Other miners made early profits. anglo american The positive rate was 1.3%. glencore It is trading 1.5% higher.
Spot gold price rose 0.48% on Monday to $4,251.22.
On the other hand, stocks airbus Shares fell 2.1% after the European aircraft maker moved over the weekend to quickly update flight software for its A320 planes. Airbus said on Friday it would request immediate changes following concerns that solar radiation could corrupt critical flight control data, but fears of widespread travel disruption did not materialize.
Asia-Pacific markets opened mixed in December as traders assessed the latest manufacturing data from China, which showed that Chinese factory activity unexpectedly contracted in November.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures were little changed Sunday night after a strong week as traders geared up for a strong end to 2025.
Seasonality is also on the Wall Street side. The average gain for the S&P 500 in December was more than 1%, making it the S&P 500’s third strongest month of the year on record since 1950, according to the Stock Traders Almanac.
There are no major earnings or data releases in Europe on Monday.
— CNBC’s Fred Imbert contributed to this market report.
