The FINANCIAL — According to Dow Jones, stocks in Europe drifted lower on Monday in thin volumes, paced by a decline in engineering firms such as Alstom and Siemens.
The German DAX 30fell 0.2% to 6,329.91, the French CAC 40fell 0.6% to 4,372.44, while the Swiss SMI rose 0.1% to 7,101.37.
The Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50 fell 0.5% to 3,297.42.
The London Stock Exchange was closed Monday for a local holiday.
U.S. stock futures also edged lower ahead of the release of existing-home sales figures for July.
In Europe, companies that traded lower included Bouygues , the French construction-to-telecoms firm, which fell 2.2%, and engineering firm Alstom , down 1.7%.
The Swiss attorney general on Friday announced a probe into alleged bribery at the company.
Shares of insurer Allianz (AZ) rose 1.3%, with speculation increasing that a deal to merge its Dresdner Bank division with Commerzbank is nearing.
Commerzbankshares fell 1.3%.
Speculation is rife that a deal will be completed this week, because by next week Dresdner Bank will be legally split from the Dresdner Kleinwort investment banking unit. If Commerzbank doesn't complete a takeover by the end of the week, it would have to buy two, rather than one, company from Allianz.
Several reports say Commerzbank has called a meeting of its 21-member supervisory board for Friday.
Also on the M&A front, Vmetroshares climbed 14% to 11.20 kroner after Curtiss-Wright (CW) said it would like to offer 12.06 kroner a share in cash for the maker of embedded computer boards, subject to limited due diligence.
SAS , the Scandinavian airline that controls Spanair, dropped 2.8%. Investigators suspect the reason a Spanair flight crashed during takeoff last week was because movable panels on the wings weren't properly extended, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the details.
That contradicts earlier reports that engine problems were to blame.
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