European shares opened lower on Monday after a raft of dour updates from companies made investors, already jittery from the assassination attempt on US presidential candidate Donald Trump, more cautious.
The continent-wide STOXX 600 was down nearly 0.5% as of 0711 GMT.
Leading losses were shares of Burberry, down 11.4% after the British luxury group named former Michael Kors boss Joshua Schulman as its new chief executive, axeing Jonathan Akeroyd after two years as it warned on profit and scrapped its dividend. Swatch Group fell 10.6% as the world’s biggest watchmaker reported a steep fall in first half sales and earnings.
Personal and household goods sector, housing both the stocks fell 1.1% and led sectoral declines. Nordea lost 3.1% after the Finnish bank reported second-quarter operating earnings just below expectations.
European shares rise on soft US inflation data
Meanwhile, Donald Trump will be formally nominated as the Republican presidential candidate in Milwaukee later this week after surviving an assassination attempt that has aggravated an already bitter US political divide, with traders weighing its impact on financial markets.
Investors will now await ECB President Christine Lagarde’s remarks later in the day, ahead of the central Bank’s policy meeting later this week.
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