EUROPEAN MARKET RESILIENCE INTACT
The pan-European STOXX 600 (.STOXX) was down 0.1% by 0748 GMT, with the technology (.SX8P) and healthcare (.SXDP) indexes falling more than 0.5%.
The stocks had led Europe's recovery from a coronavirus-induced crash last year, but investors have this year swapped them for economically sensitive sectors including banks (.SX7P), industrials (.SXNP) and miners (.SXPP), with signals that the U.S. Federal Reserve could soon begin raising interest rates.
Focus this week will be on a slew of Fed speakers, beginning with Chair Jerome Powell, who is due to speak before the U.S. Congress Today.
European shares gave up early gains on Tuesday, with growth-linked technology and healthcare stocks leading declines, as signs of rising inflation fanned fears of a sooner-than-expected tightening in global monetary policies. Europe's volatility index (.V2TX) was down at 19.17 after hitting a one-month high of 22.99 on Monday. Oil and gas, real estate (.SX86P) and travel-related (.SXTP) stocks were among the biggest gainers in morning trading. Axa (AXAF.PA) rose 0.2% after the French insurer said it would sell its insurance businesses in Malaysia to Italian rival Generali (GASI.MI) for about 140 million euros ($167 million). Generali's shares were flat. Italian challenger bank Illimity (ILTY.MI) rose 0.5% as it said it expected to roughly double its net income in the next two years following a strategic partnership with ION, a privately-owned financial data and technology group. French healthcare group Sanofi (SASY.PA) fell 1.0% even as it said the company and its U.S. partner Translate Bio (TBIO.O) had started a Phase I clinical trial evaluating an mRNA-based investigational vaccine against seasonal influenza
After logging its worst week in four months on Friday, the pan-European STOXX 600 took a breather on Monday following comments from European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde that the euro zone and the United States were "in a different situation" regarding inflation.
Still, investors this week will look to a spate of macroeconomic data from across the euro zone, beginning with a flash reading of the bloc's consumer confidence data for June at 1400 GMT.
