European stocks struggled on Monday, with carmakers hit by a profit warning from Daimler, while wider equity indices drifted with investors looking towards the G20 summit later in the week for a sense of direction.

Falling morale among Germany’s business leaders has added to the gloom surrounding the eurozone’s biggest economy, as a leading index showed that the mood among managers has weakened to its lowest level in nearly five years.

Italian government debt rallied after the Financial Times reported the EU was set to pause its budget crackdown on Rome, potentially de-escalating a stand-off that has sparked investor anxiety about the country’s debt burden.

Europe’s largest insurer Allianz has lost one of its most important distribution channels for life insurance in Spain as it sold a 60 per cent stake in joint venture Allianz Popular to the country’s biggest lender Banco Santander, cashing in €937m.

H2O Asset Management has cut its exposure to what it calls “private bonds”, while marking down the valuation of its remaining holding, in an attempt to stem the investor outflows that have hit the €30bn bond fund manager.

Shares in Chinese down jacket maker Bosideng tumbled on Monday in the wake of a short seller’s report.

Indonesian exporters put in a better-than-expected performance in May as the fall in outbound shipments moderated, taking the country’s trade balance back into surplus after a weak start to the year. 

Bitcoin edged lower on Monday after rallying above $11,000 over the weekend to hit a 15-month high.

Turkey’s lira strengthened on Monday after the country’s opposition secured a resounding victory in the re-run of Istanbul’s mayoral election. 

Investors are hoping a highly anticipated meeting next week between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, will lead to a breakthrough in contentious trade negotiations between the world’s two most important economies.

Oil moved higher on Friday as a military clash between the US and Iran looked only to have been narrowly averted, while US stocks edged lower as investors measured the implications of the tension in the Middle East and looked ahead to trade talks.

The broader US stock market and Treasuries both crossed key thresholds this week, but it was Chinese equities, gold and oil that managed to outperform key global assets in recent sessions.

Slowing growth momentum and the lack of inflationary pressure are fuelling the case among Federal Reserve policymakers that a rate cut may be necessary this year in order to stimulate the economy.

South Africa’s Naspers delayed its planned $100bn European listing of global internet assets, which includes a large stake in China’s Tencent, after the wrong envelopes were dispatched to shareholders.

Oil jumped on Friday as a fire at a major US refinery added to traders’ jitters in a market already on edge as geopolitical tensions flare in the Middle East.

Rio Tinto has poached the top European mining analyst at Morgan Stanley as its new head of investor relations.

The owner of The Money Shop loans and pawnbroking chain has become the latest subprime lender brought to the brink of collapse due to the weight of complaints from claims management companies.

The Conservatives face a tricky by-election in a Welsh constituency after almost 20 per cent of the constituents signed a “recall petition” over the conviction of incumbent MP Chris Davies for a false expenses claim.

Lloyds Banking Group’s Bank of Scotland subsidiary has been fined £45.5m by the UK financial watchdog over its failure to report suspicions of fraud at its Reading branch that forced dozens of small companies out of business.

Brussels will not renegotiate a deal with the UK just because the Conservative party has a new leader, said Xavier Bettel, Luxembourg prime minister.

Shares in British technology company Nanoco fell 80 per cent on Friday after a major US customer cancelled a project for which the UK group was a supplier.

Natixis said that its subsidiary H2O Asset Management had been hit with at least €600m of outflows, after the Financial Times revealed the scale of its holdings of illiquid bonds linked to a controversial German financier.

Shares in Trainline closed up 17 per cent on their first day of trading on Friday, giving the transport-booking app a market valuation of close to £2bn.

Thousands of demonstrators surrounded Hong Kong’s police headquarters and blocked roads to demand the complete withdrawal of a controversial extradition bill.