Europe open: Equity markets flat to lower with autos under the cosh

European stocks were flat to slightly weaker in early trade as investors paused for breath following the rally sparked by Friday’s bumper US jobs data.

At 0900 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 index was flat, Germany’s DAX was 0.3% lower and France’s CAC 40 was down 0.5%.

“European equities are trading little changed to slightly lower this morning in the aftermath of much better than expected US non-farm payrolls data last Friday, which pretty much made it a given that a US rate hike will take place after all in 2015,” said Markus Huber, senior analyst at Peregrine & Black.

“Typical for a Monday there are very few economic and corporate data scheduled to be released pointing towards a mix of slight profit-taking and range-trading what markets are concerned. Overall sentiment remains positive with traders preferring to buy dips.”

On Friday data from the Bureau of Labour Statistics showed US non-farm payrolls rose by 271,000 in October, surging past the 180,000 gain expected by economists.

The unemployment rate, meanwhile, edged lower by a tenth of a percentage point to 5.0%, as the participation rate held steady at 6.24%.

On the corporate front, InterContinental Hotels was the standout loser on the FTSE 100 after the Holiday Inn owner denied recent media speculation and said it was not considering a potential sale or merger of the company.

Continental AG slumped despite raising its full year profit outlook and posting a jump in third quarter sales.

Beleaguered German car maker Volkswagen slipped after engineers admitted they had manipulated carbon dioxide emissions data because goals set by former chief executive Martin Winterkorn were too difficult to achieve.

Renault dropped as French prime minister Manuel Valls said over the weekend that the government did not want a merger between the car maker and its Japanese partner Nissan.

Tullow Oil bucked the trend, surging after A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S agreed to buy half of Africa Oil Corp.’s shares in licenses in Kenya and Ethiopia, where Tullow operates some blocks.