European stock markets closed mostly lower in Thursday trading as investors continue to monitor rising oil prices and developments in the Middle East, with the US putting additional economic pressure on Iran and threatening its trade partners.
The Stoxx Europe was off 0.01%, Germany's DAX fell 0.4%, France's CAC dropped 0.5%, the Swiss Market Index declined 0.2%, while the FTSE 100 gained 0.1%.
Rising oil prices are stoking inflation concerns among investors, with front-month global benchmarks Brent crude advancing 2.34% to $93.76 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate crude was rising 2.60% to $86.58 a barrel.
In corporate news, UBS, through its asset management arm, is in talks to become a cornerstone investor in Shein Global's planned Hong Kong initial public offering, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
According to the report, Boyu Capital, Tencent and General Atlantic are also considering commitments, while Shein has separately gauged interest from E Fund Management, Greenwoods and Tiger Global. Shein plans to reserve at least $400 million of shares for cornerstone investors and is targeting about $2 billion in IPO proceeds at a valuation of $26 billion to $27 billion, Bloomberg added.
The company expects to begin taking orders on Aug. 24 and start trading around Sept. 1.
UBS, Shein Global, Boyu Capital, Tencent, General Atlantic, E Fund Management, Greenwoods and Tiger Global did not immediately respond to' request for comment.
Shares of UBS edged 0.1% lower in Zurich.
HSBC, Standard Chartered, and Citigroup adopted Ant International's upgraded AI model for foreign exchange applications as banks increasingly use specialized AI to manage liquidity risks, Reuters reported Thursday.
Ant International launched its Falcon Time-Series Transformer Model 2.0 and has partnered with six major banks, including Deutsche Bank (DB) and Barclays (BCS), according to the report.
The model is designed for financial applications and can help reduce foreign exchange hedging and allocation costs by more than 60% through more precise forecasting, Reuters added.
HSBC,Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, and Ant International did not immediately respond to requests for comment from.
Shares of HSBC shares increased 0.5% in London, while Barclays and Standard Chartered dropped 1.4% and 0.1% respectively. Deutsche Bank fell 0.8% in Frankfurt.
Banco Santander, Telefonica, AI Infrastructure Development, and SETT have received European Commission approval to create a joint venture focused mainly on data center services in Spain, the European Commission said Thursday.
The regulator said the joint venture will support the expansion of cloud and AI infrastructure in Europe.
The commission said the deal does not raise competition concerns because the companies have limited market positions.
Shares of Banco Santander and Telefonica declined 0.01% and 0.5% respectively in Madrid.
Equinor signed a three-year agreement with Poland's Orlen for crude oil sale from the Johan Sverdrup field on the Norwegian continental shelf, starting in September, Equinor said Thursday.
Under the agreement, annual deliveries will range from 5 million tonnes to more than 9 million tonnes, with the possibility of supplying other crude grades produced from fields on the shelf.
Shares of the Norwegian petroleum refiner gained 1.5% in Oslo.