By Amruta Khandekar and Shristi Achar A
(Reuters) - European shares edged lower on Monday as rising government bond yields and concerns over the Israel-Hamas war kept investors on edge, while Italy's FTSE MIB index was among top gainers across the regional markets.
The pan-European STOXX 600 ended 0.1% lower after declines of over 3% in the previous week.
While European Union leaders are set to call for a "humanitarian pause" in the Israel-Hamas war so aid could reach them, Israel continued its bombardment of the besieged enclave.
Washington warned of a significant risk to U.S. interests in the Middle East as Israel bombarded Gaza with air strikes.
Adding to the pressure, the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose above 5.0% on Monday before paring gains, ahead of key gross domestic product and inflation data from the country later this week. [US/]
"The GDP (data) is likely to show quite a robust third quarter and add to expectations that the Fed will keep rates in restrictive territory for longer," said Laura Cooper, senior macro strategist for iShares EMEA at BlackRock (NYSE:BLK).
Investors will brace for earnings from major U.S. technology firms such as Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and the European Central Bank's interest rate decision, due later this week.
"European government bond yields are at multi-year highs in line with what we are seeing in the U.S. despite very different growth and inflation dynamics. So we expect the ECB to take on more of a dovish tone," said Cooper.
Miners shed 1.1% as prices of most base metals took a hit from geopolitical tensions, while rate-sensitive real estate stocks hit their lowest level since 2012, before paring declines. The sector ended 0.6% down.
Italy's FTSE MIB index was among few gainers across the region, up 0.7%, boosted by a 2.6% rise in UniCredit (LON:0RLS) as the lender planned to buy a 9% stake in Alpha Bank.
Among other movers, Volkswagen (ETR:VOWG_p) slipped 0.9%, falling as much as 3.2% to its lowest since April 2020 after the carmaker cut its profit margin outlook for the current year on Friday.
Philips (LON:0LNG) fell 2.0% after the Dutch health group reported a drop in third-quarter orders.
Limiting losses in the healthcare sector, Indivior jumped 5.2% after the drugmaker said it will pay $385 million to settle a lawsuit related to its opioid addiction treatment.
Getinge rose 3.8% after the Swedish medical gear maker beat quarterly sales expectations.
Britain's Vistry dropped 5.8% to the bottom of the STOXX 600 after the homebuilder lowered its annual profit forecast and said it would cut 200 jobs.