European stocks fell at the beginning of the quarter last week due to China’s challenges

In choppy trading at the beginning of the final week of the quarter, European shares declined as concerns about interest rates remaining higher for longer and weakness in shares exposed to China weighed on the index.

By 08:45 GMT on Monday, the STOXX 600 index for all of Europe (.STOXX) was down 0.8%.

LVMH (LVMH.PA) and Kering (PRTP.PA), two luxury companies that are exposed to China, saw their shares fall by 1.8% and 3.2%, respectively, as ongoing worries about growth in the world’s second-largest economy persisted.

The Federal Reserve expressed a hawkish tone, the European Central Bank signaled a halt in October, while Britain, Switzerland, and Japan were unexpectedly dovish, according to market assessments of a number of central bank decisions.

According to policymaker Francois Villeroy de Galhau, the ECB has reached a stage where it needs to be cautious about raising interest rates too high and should attempt to prevent a harsh landing of the economy.

Miners (.SXPP) experienced a 2.1% decline as metal prices dropped due to rising stocks and concerns about an extended period of higher global interest rates.

Germany’s DAX (.GDAXI) fell 0.9% as a result of recent data revealing that German business morale declined in September for the fifth consecutive month.

German shares have had the poorest regional performance thus far this quarter, declining 4.5% as opposed to the STOXX 600’s 2.6% decline.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior economist at Swissquote Bank, said: “You see that the growing energy prices are also particularly harsh on the German economy, which used to be the growth engine of the euro zone. Not only is the economy slowing.

Investors don’t believe the situation will improve overall given the current factors, the most significant of which is the escalating energy crisis, which could have a negative influence on inflation.

Entain (ENT.L), a British gaming company, lost 10.1% after issuing a revenue warning for online gaming. Peer Flutter Entertainment’s decline was 3.9%.

As a result of SBB’s (SBBb.ST) sale of EduCo, a Swedish property company’s educational business, to Brookfield Super-Core Infrastructure Partners for about 242 million Swedish crowns ($21.7 million), the stock increased 27.8%.

AstraZeneca (AZN.L) increased 1.6% after Jefferies upgraded the pharmaceutical company’s rating to “buy” from “hold.”