Europe open: Stocks down as euro gains, oil slips

Stocks began the morning lower amid dour sentiment after the White House pulled its proposed bill on healthcare reform last Friday, raising concerns that other legislative initiatives on tax reform and infrastructure investment might encounter similar resistance.

As of 0847 GMT the benchmark Stoxx 600 was off by 0.86% at 373.27, alongside a drop of 0.99% for Germany's Dax to 11,944.90 while the Cac-40 was lower by 0.90% to 4,975.90.

In parallel, Brent crude futures and the euro were again probing key levels of technical resistance.

Euro/dollar was higher, rising 0.32% to 1.0864 and moving past technical resistance towards 1.0830 on an intraday basis.

For its part, front month Brent crude oil futures were down 0.57% to $50.51 a barrel, having earlier slipped towards technical support at $50.20 a barrel.

"Calls for a negative start to the new trading week come after late Friday’s withdrawal of Trump’s Healthcare bill, due to a continued lack of Republican support sapped optimism. While it puts into doubt ease of passage for other stimulus measures it could actually allow the new government proceed more quickly with the pro-growth infrastructure spending, deregulation and tax cut trio that have fuelled a 4-month global reflation rally," said Mike Van Dulken, Head of Research at Accendo Markets.

On the economic calendar for Monday are two speeches from the presidents of the Federal Reserve banks of Chicago and Dallas scheduled for later in the day.

In corporate news, Lufthansa started the morning lower after RyanAir chief Michael O'Leary told German weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung that in three years' time his carrier will increase its market share in Germany to 20%.

Italian lender Intesa San Paolo will hold a board meeting tomorrow to broach the sale of over €15.0bn of non-performing loans, with the aim of reducing its non-performing loan ratios from 14.7% to 10.5%, according to Il Sole 24 Ore.