European stocks fall ahead of Fed meeting ‎

European stocks fell today, Monday, amid investors’ anticipation of the decisions of the Federal Reserve (the US Central Bank) and the European Central Bank regarding interest rates scheduled for this week, and their sentiment was affected by the rise in Covid-19 infections in China after easing restrictions.

According to “Reuters”, the European Stoxx 600 index fell 0.4 percent by 0805 GMT.

The index recorded its first weekly decline on Friday, after a seven-week rise, due to fears of an imminent global recession due to sharp interest rate increases, overshadowing optimism about the easing of strict Covid-19 restrictions in China.

On the other hand, the London Stock Exchange index rose 4.5 percent after Microsoft agreed to buy about a four percent stake in the British stock exchange operator as part of an agreement to transfer its data platform to the cloud computing system.

Shares of Sanofi (EPA:SASY) rose 1.9 percent after announcing on Sunday that it was no longer in talks to buy Horizon Therapeutics.