Stocks lower by Wall Street route
The pan-European Stoxx 600 sank 0.4 percent in morning trading, with almost all sectors and big reds in red. When looking at individual stocks, Germany's delivery hero was top player. The online food vendor recently sold its German unit to Dutch rival Takeaway.com for $ 1.1 billion. The company's shares rose 10 percent on Monday.
In corporate news, BMW was hit by the South Korean government with a bottom of $ 11.2 billion ($ 9.96 million) on Monday, and is facing a complaint of allegedly delayed recall and hidden failures that resulted in engine fires in the country . Shares in the German automaker barely moved the news, and were up by 0.1[ads1] percent.
Thin volumes are likely to dampen trading activity Monday, with markets closing early before Christmas holidays. The FTSE 100 closes at 12:30 pm while other European markets close at 1am London time.
On Friday, stocks dropped, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average having the worst week since the 2008 crisis, Nasdaq Composite melted into a bear market and S&P on its own.