11:50 AM EDT, 08/24/2026 (MT Newswires) -- The European stock markets closed mostly lower in Monday trading amid easing crude oil prices, and as investors look ahead to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent providing details about "economic D-Day" against Iran at 2 pm ET.

The Stoxx Europe edged 0.1% lower, Germany's DAX dropped 0.2%, France's CAC lost 0.4%, the Swiss Market Index decreased 0.2%, while the FTSE 100 rose 0.3%.

In corporate news, Shell has drawn interest from potential bidders including ExxonMobil, LyondellBasell, and Apollo Global Management for its US chemicals assets, which could fetch up to $8 billion, The Financial Times reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The report said the assets span four sites in Louisiana, Texas and Pennsylvania, including Shell's $14 billion Monaca, Pennsylvania, complex. Potential bidders submitted non-binding offers last month for the entire business or parts of it, the people told The Financial Times.

Shell declined to comment, while ExxonMobil, LyondellBasell and Apollo Global Management did not immediately respond to MT Newswires' request for comment.

Shares of Shell were off 0.2% in London.

TotalEnergies will invest in the Fujairah oil export pipeline expansion in Abu Dhabi and continue investing in the Middle East despite ongoing conflict in the region, Reuters reported Monday, citing Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne at the ONS energy conference in Norway.

Pouyanne has previously called for investing in alternative oil export routes to reduce reliance on the Strait of Hormuz, which typically handles about a fifth of global oil shipments, the report said.

Shares of the French oil and gas major lost nearly 2% in Paris.

Eni is expanding its investment in nuclear fusion, targeting a commercial fusion plant in Europe by the early 2040s or sooner, the Financial Times reported Monday.

The energy company is working with Commonwealth Fusion Systems and plans to develop a European plant after CFS's first US facility, with a roughly $1 billion power purchase agreement already in place, according to the report.

Eni did not immediately respond to MT Newswires' requests for comments.

Shares of the Italian oil and gas major closed 2.4% lower in Milan.

Equinor signed a new three-year deal with SAS to expandi their collaboration for increased route commitments and dedicated capacity for Equinor's corporate travel requirements, SAS said Monday.

Financial details were not disclosed. SAS said the deal is effective from Feb. 1, 2027 and will cover domestic and international routes to back Equinor's global travel program.

Meanwhile, Equinor, Eni's Var Energi, and Aker BP said Monday they have agreed to collaborate on oil and gas exploration on the Norwegian continental shelf.

The companies said that over the next four to five years, they plan to mature and test 20 to 25 exploration opportunities, aiming to drill around five high-impact exploration wells annually.

BP owns a 15.9% stake in Aker BP, while Eni holds 63.04% of Var Energi, according to their respective websites.

Shares of Equinor declined 1.1% in Oslo, while BP's stock dropped 2.8% in London.

STMicroelectronics and the National University of Singapore have launched a four-year research initiative focused on developing edge artificial intelligence technologies, the companies said Monday.

The ST-NUS HELIX Corporate Lab will focus on memory-centric architectures, in-memory computing, scalable compute-and-memory systems, and advanced silicon and embedded-memory technologies.

STMicroelectronics will provide NUS with a design platform based on its 18-nanometer Fully Depleted Silicon On Insulator technology, according to the companies.

Shares of the semiconductor company fell nearly 2% in Paris.

GSK announced on Monday that Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has approved the company's drug Hibsago, or bepirovirsen, as a functional cure for chronic hepatitis B virus infection in certain patients.

Adult patients who have received at least six months of prior nucleoside/nucleotide analogue therapy and who meet pre-defined viral markers are eligible to receive Hibsago.

The pharmaceutical company also said Monday that its Jemperli has been accepted by the US Food and Drug Administration for priority review of its supplemental biologics license application for patients with previously untreated rectal cancer.

Shares of GSK declined nearly 1% in London.

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