European stock markets edged mostly lower on Tuesday, as investors kept tabs on ongoing political turbulence in France and the United States that threatened to dampen enthusiasm around artificial intelligence dealmaking.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 slipped by 0.2% and the Dax in Germany fell by 0.1%. The FTSE 100 in the United Kingdom and the CAC 40 in France were both mostly flat. The CAC 40 fell sharply on Monday on news of a surprise resignation of the country's new Prime Minister, Sebastien Lecornu.

Two days of last-minute discussions between the outgoing Lecornu and members of several parties are set to begin today, although it was unclear what responsibilities Lecornu will have during the talks.

Both allies and opponents of Lecornu, who was only named as Prime Minister by French President Emmanuel Macron in September, rejected his cabinet picks on Sunday evening -- making the government the shortest-lived administration in modern French history. It also thrust France, one of Europe's largest economies, into a fresh round of uncertainty and turmoil.

Beyond France, an extended shutdown of the U.S. government has delayed the release of a slate of crucial economic data points, making the outlook for Federal Reserve monetary policy murkier. Still, the Fed is anticipated to slash rates by 25 basis points at its upcoming gathering later this month, after having rolled out a similar reduction in September.

Against this backdrop, traders have also been tracking soaring enthusiasm around AI, which was given a further boost following the announcement of a deal between semiconductor group Advanced Micro Devices and OpenAI earlier this week. The agreement will see AMD supply AI chips to OpenAI in exchange for a 10% stake in the ChatGPT-maker and is anticipated to draw in tens of billions of dollars in yearly revenue.

On a sector-wide basis, European defense stocks fell, with Rheinmetall and BAE Systems in particular weighed on the main index.

Discount retail store B&M also slumped after it projected a 28% slide in first-half core profit and a decline in full-year earnings.

Elsewhere, Shell both higher liquefied natural gas production and improved gas trading results for the third quarter, lifting shares in the energy major as well as the wider oil and gas segment.

LVMH and Kering also advanced after analysts at Morgan Stanley upgraded their rating of the luxury giants to "overweight" from "equal weight."(Cay)

Sumber: Investing.com