01:17 PM EDT, 03/18/2024 (MT Newswires) -- The European stock markets closed mostly lower on Monday as the Stoxx Europe 600 was down 0.10%, the Swiss Market Index dropped 0.45%, France's CAC declined 0.20%, the FTSE in London was off 0.06%, and Germany's DAX nudged 0.01% higher.

Euro area annual inflation declined to 2.6% in February from 2.8% in January and 8.5% a year earlier, according to Eurostat. Meanwhile, EU inflation fell to 2.8% in February from 3.1% in January and 9.9% a year earlier.

The lowest annual rates were in Latvia and Denmark at 0.6% each, followed by Italy at 0.8%. The highest annual rates were in Romania at 7.1%, followed by Croatia and Estonia at 4.8% and 4.4% respectively. Compared with January, annual inflation fell in 20 countries, remained unchanged in five, and rose in two.

Eurostat also reported a surplus of 11.4 billion euros ($12.4 billion) in trade in goods in the euro area with the rest of the world in January, compared with a deficit of 32.6 billion euros in January 2023. The euro area exports of goods to the rest of the world were 225.9 billion euros in January, while imports were 214.5 billion euros.

And in corporate news, French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies (TTE) and French utility company Engie said Monday they are joining six other firms to launch an international coalition to support the development and production of e-natural gas as well as promote its use.

Additionally, TotalEnergies agreed to acquired Talos Energy's ( TALO ) subsidiary Talos Low Carbon Solutions for $148 million.

Stellantis ( STLA ) said Monday that it has recently completed a series of open market purchases of approximately 8.3 million shares of Archer Aviation stock. Archer plans to bring electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft to market in 2025.

French private equity firm PAI Partners has agreed to acquire a majority stake in professional haircare platform Beautynova from pan-European private equity firm Bluegem Capital Partners .

Finnish telecommunications company Nokia ( NOK ) said Monday it is launching the first phase of a share buyback program to purchase up to 300 million euros of its stock. The program ends in December.