12:18 PM EDT, 09/16/2024 (MT Newswires) -- The European stock markets closed lower in Monday trading as The Stoxx Europe 600 was down 0.20%, the Swiss Market Index fell 0.26%, France's CAC dropped 0.21%, Germany's DAX declined 0.38%, while the FTSE in London nudged 0.06% higher.

The first estimates of euro area balance showed a 21.2 billion euro ($23.6 billion) surplus in trade in goods with the rest of the world in July, up from a 6.7 billion surplus a year earlier, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

Eurostat also reported that hourly labor costs rose 4.7% in the euro area and 5.2% in the EU compared with the same quarter a year earlier.

In Italy, the consumer price index increased 0.2% in August from July, and is up 1.1% compared with the year-ago month, according to the Italian National Institute of Statistics.

In Switzerland, the producer and import price index rose 0.2% in August, compared with the previous month to 107.4 points, as pharmaceutical product prices increased while prices of petroleum products declined, according to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office.

And in corporate news, Deutsche Bank (DB) is looking into how it can impede Italian investment bank UniCredit's ability to purchase Commerzbank, Bloomberg reported Monday. Chief Executive Christian Sewing and his staff have been mulling options, such as buying part or all of the German government's 12% stake in Commerzbank, Bloomberg reported.

Commerzbank declined to comment to MT Newswires. Deutsche Bank and UniCredit did not immediately reply to requests for comment from MT Newswires. Shares of the two German financial services companies closed slightly lower in Monday trading in Frankfurt.

AstraZeneca (AZN) said Monday that its phase 3 trial assessing Imfinzi combined with Imjudo showed a "sustained, clinically meaningful overall survival benefit" at five years for patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.

French pharmaceutical company Sanofi (SNY) said Monday it is shipping Beyfortus in the US to help protect eligible babies ahead of the respiratory syncytial virus disease season. The doses are now ready to ship with the recent approval from the US Food and Drug Administration, Sanofi said.

And Scottish biopharmaceutical company NuCana (NCNA) said Saturday that a combination of NUC-7738 and pembrolizumab led to prolonged progression-free survival in a phase 2 trial for patients with metastatic melanoma.