Europe open: Telecoms weigh as Bouygues-Orange tie-up falls through

The trading week in stockmarkets kicked off on a weak note on the Continent, with stocks in the telecommunications arena getting whalloped after a failed merger attempt between between Bouygues and Orange.

Acting as a backdrop, some market chatter was referencing a drop in crude oil futures and weakness in the Japanese yen as potential risk factors to keep track of.

As of 0904 BST the benchmark DJ Stoxx 600 was slipping by 0.38% to 331.87 and the Dax-30 by another 0.43% to 9,752.42, while the FTSE Mibtel was losing 0.85% to 17,626.58, alongside a similar retreat of 0.81% for the Cac-40.

The DJ Stoxx 600's Telecommunications sub-index was bearing the brunt of losses, falling 2.49% to 332.27 after talks between Orange and Bouygues fell through to create a dominant French telecoms operator collapsed on Friday.

Shares in Bouygues were 16.38% lower to €29.39 and those in Orange by another 5.16% to €14.60.

To take note of, a fair bit of market commentary was referencing not only the currently dovish stance of policy-makers at the US Federal Reserve, particularly of Fed chair Janet Yellen, but also the torrid streak of gains in developed world sovereign debt markets year-to-date.

Indeed, America´s S&P 500 closed last Friday at three-month highs on the back of what analysts generally described as a solid jobs reports for the month of March.

Investment by large British corporates had slowed dramatically, a survey by consultancy Deloitte had found, due to finance chiefs´ increased concerns about the potential impact which Brexit might have on the economy.

However, traders in the UK were largely shrugging off the news and instead pushing the Footsie a tad higher.

On the economic calendar for Monday, investors were looking out to the latest figures on US factory orders later in the day, although the release rarely swayed financial markets.

The latest readings on euro area unemployment and factory gate prices also merited attention but would likely receive scant notice (as usual) give the time lag with which they are published.

Spanish unemployment fell by a better-than-expected 58,200 in March (consensus: -50,000), according to the country´s Labour Ministry.

Euro/dollar was drifting 0.13% lower to 1.1382 and the Japanese yen by 0.23% to 111.46 against the Greenback.

"A stronger yen is once again putting the Nikkei under pressure overnight, after data released over the weekend showed inflation expectations in Japans have fallen again. The yen is not trading far from an important technical support against the dollar, around 1.11, a break of which could trigger another sell-off in the pair," Craig Erlam, Senior Market Analyst at Oanda said.

Front month Brent crude futures were 0.94% lower at $38.31 per barrel on the ICE.

On 1 April, Saudi deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman told Bloomberg his country would only freeze its output of crude oil if other major producers, specifically including Iran, did the same.