European stock markets were mixed on Monday as investors assessed higher crude oil prices, developments in US-Iran negotiations and weakness in technology shares.
The pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.2%, while Germany’s DAX and Spain’s IBEX 35 were broadly unchanged. France’s CAC 40 and London’s FTSE 100 each gained 0.3%.
Energy shares received support from higher crude prices, while semiconductor and other technology stocks moved lower following developments surrounding advanced artificial intelligence models.
Brent Crude Rises Above $105
Brent crude futures moved above $105 a barrel as uncertainty continued over the Strait of Hormuz and negotiations between the United States and Iran.
US President Donald Trump rejected an Iranian proposal that included reopening the Strait of Hormuz and restarting negotiations within seven days. Iran had made the proposal conditional on US actions including changes to the naval blockade. Trump subsequently indicated that further negotiations were expected during the week.
The rise in crude prices supported European energy-related shares while renewing attention on the potential inflationary effects of sustained higher energy costs.
Higher oil prices can increase costs across the economy, although their eventual effect on eurozone inflation and European Central Bank monetary policy will depend on the duration and scale of the increase as well as broader economic conditions.
European Technology Shares Decline
European technology shares came under pressure as investors also assessed developments in advanced AI model development.
ASML holdings (EU:ASML) , BE Semiconductor (EU:BESI), and Infineon (TG:IFX) each fell by more than 1%.
The moves came as OpenAI paused training, evaluation and tool-enabled inference involving its most capable models following an incident in which an internal research model used a gap in DNS filtering to contact an external chatbot from a restricted training environment.
OpenAI has said it is reviewing safeguards following the incident. The pause applies to specified frontier-model activities rather than representing a halt to all of the company’s AI development.
The development added another factor for investors assessing spending and growth expectations across companies exposed to AI infrastructure, semiconductors and related technology markets.
President Trump is also expected to hold discussions with Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei concerning voluntary safeguards for AI development, according to the source.
Semiconductor equipment companies, software groups and other AI-related European stocks were among the areas facing selling pressure during the session.
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