America News Agency

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was last down, with most regional bourses and sectors pulling back. Retail stocks were last 1.06 percent lower, while telecoms was one of the only sectors to gain and was last up 0.55 percent.

Shares in real estate listings company Rightmove soared as much as 24 percent as markets opened and were last up 23.22 percent after its Australian rival REA Group said it was considering making an offer for the U.K.-based platform.

Regional markets closed higher last Friday, the last trading day of August, as investors considered inflation data from around the world and expectations rise that the U.S. Federal Reserve will begin interest rate cuts in September.

Data released last week showed the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the personal consumption expenditures price index, rose 0.2 percent on a monthly basis in July and 2.5 percent from a year ago. The result was in line with estimates from economists polled by Dow Jones. It also rose 0.2 percent from the prior month, excluding food and energy. The data is likely to influence policymakers’ rate decision in September.

Asia-Pacific markets fell overnight as investors assessed China’s business activity numbers released over the weekend. China’s official purchasing managers’ index data for August saw the manufacturing PMI fall to a six-month low of 49.1, a faster contraction than the 49.4 seen in July.

On Monday, data releases in Europe include the latest manufacturing PMIs from Spain, Italy, France, the U.K., and Germany. There are no major earnings releases. U.S. markets are closed on Monday for the Labor Day public holiday.