(Bloomberg) -- European stocks were little changed as ongoing diplomatic efforts, including Joe Biden's visit to Israel this week, helped tentatively calm down investors' nerves.
The Stoxx Europe 600 was up 0.1% at 8:16 a.m. in London, with gains in utilities and consumer products sectors offsetting losses in telecom and mining sectors. Lonza Group shares slumped after the Swiss life-sciences company's outlook for 2024 profit margins fell short of expectations.
Among other individual stocks, Rolls Royce Holdings Plc rose after it said it's cutting as many as 2,500 positions and will streamline the business, enacting the deepest job cuts yet under Chief Executive Officer Tufan Erginbilgic. Ericsson AB slipped after it said market weakness that has depressed sales will persist into the fourth quarter.
The European gauge is unchanged since the start of October and has been trading in a narrow range.
“Markets seems to be taking the geopolitical risk session by session at the moment, rather than having any strategic sense of where things are heading,” said Jim Reid, a strategist at Deutsche Bank AG.
“It feels like we're in a very dangerous and delicate holding pattern for now, but with no major developments since the Israeli evacuation notice to Gaza residents on Friday, markets have taken off their weekend hedges over the last 24 hours or so,” he added.
Oil steadied as the US intensified diplomatic efforts to contain the crisis in Gaza, with President Joe Biden's scheduled visit to Israel. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank is watching the oil price for any inflationary impact from the Israel-Hamas conflict, President Christine Lagarde told euro-area finance ministers, according to people familiar with the matter.
For more on equity markets:
- Italian Equities Set to Face Sovereign Risk Again: Taking Stock
- M&A Watch Europe: Orsted, Wendel, Frasers Group, Abivax, BNP
- Sanofi's EuroAPI a Rare Loser Among European Spinoffs: ECM Watch
- US Stock Futures Rise; Marathon Oil, D.R. Horton, Organon Gain
- Rolls-Royce to Cut 2,500 Jobs Globally: The London Rush
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