The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was down 0.1% in early trade, with all sectors spread across positive and negative territory. Travel and leisure stocks led losses with a 1.9% decline, followed by mining stocks, which were down 1.6%.
The Bank of England and the Swiss National Bank opted to pause their interest rate hiking cycles last week, in contrast to the “dovish hike” delivered by the European Central Bank on Sept. 14.
The latest interest rate decisions showed that “all central banks are coping with the same triple dilemma: how to balance between slowing economies, still too high inflation and the delayed impact of unprecedented rate hikes,” Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at Dutch bank ING, told CNBC.
Elsewhere, U.S. stock futures edged higher in overnight trading, set to enter the last week of trading in September with big losses. Stocks stateside have struggled this month as the Federal Reserve signaled higher interest rates for longer, sending bond yields rising.
Asia-Pacific markets were mixed overnight as investors looked ahead to inflation data from across the region. Singapore and Australia are expected to report inflation figures for August this week, while Japan will release inflation data for the Tokyo region, which is seen as an indicator of nationwide trends.
