European Shares Slip From Record High In Lackluster Trade

European stocks slipped from record highs on Monday amid lingering concerns of early post-pandemic inflation.

As lockdowns ease in Europe and elsewhere, it is expected that the U.S., China and parts of Europe will continue their economic recovery from COVID-19.

All adults in France will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine starting today, a new and essential step in bringing an end to the pandemic.

The focus now turns to the euro zone inflation readings and the U.S. jobs data due this week as investors try to gauge monetary policy moves ahead of the Federal Reserve and ECB meetings early in June.

The pan European Stoxx 600 was marginally lower at 448.88 after rising 0.6 percent on Friday.

The German DAX slipped 0.2 percent while French shares were marginally higher.

The U.K. markets remain closed for the Spring Bank holiday.

Deutsche Bank shares were down 1.7 percent. The U.S. Federal Reserve told the German lender to address flaws in its anti-money-laundering controls, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

Italian insurer Cattolica jumped 12.5 percent after rival Assicurazioni Generali SpA offered to buy the company.

Julius Baer edged up slightly. The Swiss bank announced that it has finalized the agreement reached with the U.S. Department of Justice in November 2020 to settle the FIFA-related investigation in the U.S.

Swedish online property listings firm Hemnet rallied 2.7 percent after posting a 24 percent jump in quarterly sales.

Alfa Laval AB rose over 1 percent. The company has received a 415 million Swedish kronor order to supply processing systems and equipment for feedstock pretreatment to a U.S. refinery that is switching from traditional petroleum refining to renewable biofuel production.