The European stock markets were tracking lower in Monday trading as oil prices surged again amid unverified reports from Iranian news services that two missiles struck a US warship in the Strait of Hormuz.
The Stoxx Europe was declining 0.7%, Germany's DAX was dropping 0.6%, France's CAC was losing 1.2%, and the Swiss Market Index was falling 0.9%.
The S&P Global Eurozone Manufacturing PMI, which gauges the region's manufacturing sector, rose to 52.2 in April from 51.6 in March, which is its highest level in nearly four years.
"Although the PMI has risen to its highest for nearly four years, the survey is more a cause for alarm than celebration," S&P Global Market Intelligence Chief Business Economist Chris Williamson said in a statement. "Production and orders books are being buoyed by the building of safety stocks as a result of widespread concerns over supply shortages and rising prices emanating from the war in the Middle East."
Defense and aerospace stocks surged in Monday trading as Airbus and Dassault Systemes rose 1.8% and 1.2% respectively in Paris, while Rheinmetall and Hensoldt gained 3.1% and 2% respectively in Frankfurt. Rolls-Royce was up 1.5% in London, and Saab was up 2% in Stockholm.
And in corporate news, Equinor is extending key supplier deals for drilling and well services with an aggregate value of about 17 billion Norwegian kroner ($1.83 billion), the company said Monday.
It is exercising one-year options under three contracts for integrated drilling and well services, as well as two-year options under 18 company framework agreements for relevant specialist services.
Shares of the Norwegian petroleum refiner were up 1.3% in Oslo.
SAP said Monday it has agreed to acquire Dremio and Prior Labs in separate deals aimed at strengthening its enterprise AI and data capabilities, as it looks to unify fragmented data and advance AI built for structured business use cases.
Terms for both transactions were not disclosed, and the deals are subject to regulatory approval.
The Dremio acquisition is expected to close in Q3, while the Prior Labs deal is targeted for Q2 or Q3.
Shares of the German software firm were gaining close to 2% in Frankfurt.
HSBC has agreed to sell its International Wealth and Premier Banking operations to OCBC Indonesia, adding about 336,000 customers and 89.8 trillion Indonesian rupiah ($5.6 billion) in assets under management, OCBC said Monday.
The bank said the deal includes customer deposits, investment products, insurance, credit cards, and retail loans, and is expected to be earnings accretive after completion, excluding one-off transaction costs.
Shares of HSBC were up 0.8% in London.