European Shares Pause After Last Week's Rally

(RTTNews) - European stocks were mostly lower in lackluster trade on Monday after last week's sharp rally on expectations that falling inflation across industrialized countries will prompt global central banks to start cutting interest rates next year.

Investors await comments from a number of central bankers later today, including Bank of France Governor de Galhau, Bank of Spain Governor de Cos and Bank of England Governor Bailey for direction.

Minutes from the Federal Reserve's last meeting earlier this month are due to be released Tuesday and could shed further light on the central bank's considerations.

The minutes could influence a potential rebound or continuation of the rally in U.S. bond yields.

Meanwhile, Germany's producer prices declined for the fourth straight month in October due to the decrease in energy prices, Destatis reported earlier today.

Producer prices dropped 11.0 percent from a year ago in October, in line with expectations. The annual decline in September was 14.7 percent, which was the biggest fall since records began in 1949.

The pan European STOXX 600 was marginally lower at 455.64 after climbing nearly 3 percent last week on dovish Fed bets.

The German DAX was marginally lower and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was down 0.2 percent while France's CAC 40 rose 0.2 percent.

Swiss private lender Julius Baer plunged 9 percent after lowering profit expectations.

Energy stocks were subdued, with BP Plc and Shell trading marginally lower in London despite oil prices extending Friday's rally following reports that Saudi Arabia is preparing to prolong oil production cuts into next year.

Ashtead Group shares plummeted 10 percent after the British equipment rental firm warned that annual profits will fall short of forecasts.

Catering group Compass Group fell more than 5 percent after annual profit missed expectations.

Halma rose nearly 2 percent after the safety, health and environmental-technology company bought the TeDan group of companies for an initial $89.1 million on a cash-free, debt free basis.

German agrichemical company Bayer AG slumped 20 percent after stopping the main study of its top experimental medicine and losing a key U.S. trial against its weed killer Roundup.