European shares are seen opening sharply lower on Monday, as French and Greek election results increased uncertainty about Europe's efforts to tackle its debt crisis.
The euro is broadly weaker, Asian shares fell across the board and commodities retreated after Francois Hollande was crowned the new President of France, unseating Nicholas Sarkozy, the incumbent.
Hollande got 52 percent votes, while Sarkozy managed to get only 48 percent of votes. During the campaign, Hollande alleged that Sarkozy ruined the economy, while Sarkozy criticized the spending plans of Hollande.
Meanwhile, results of the Greek parliamentary elections held on Sunday showed that the two main parties -- the conservative New Democracy and the left-wing Pasok -- suffered huge defeats, with those opposed to more cuts winning almost 60 percent support in a general election.
The losses follow months of protests against austerity measures across the country after the government was forced to ask for two bailouts. While New Democracy, led by Antonis Samaras, remained the largest party, it fell short of an absolute majority, raising the possibility of fresh elections soon.
On the macroeconomic front, Eurozone sentix investor confidence index for May and a report on German factory orders for March are slated for release in the European session.
In corporate news, U.K. drug company Shire Plc announced that it will present scientific data from one oral and 16 poster presentations at the American Psychiatric Association 165th annual meeting to be held May 5-9.
Defence and security company BAE Systems Plc is close to agreeing to a 500 million pounds sale to Saudi Arabia of as many as 30 Hawk training aircraft, the Sunday Times reported, without citing the source.
Norway's Statoil ASA said it signed a cooperation agreement with Russia's state oil company Rosneft to jointly explore offshore frontier areas of Russia and Norway and to carry out joint technical studies on two onshore Russian assets.
British banks could be in focus after a statement from the Treasury said Britain will publish detailed proposals for its banking sector reforms by June.
Barclays Plc plans to offer an online savings bank in the U.S. to secure more stable funding for its international credit card business, reports say.
European stocks posted significant losses on Friday, as investors reacted to weaker than expected reports on Eurozone private sector activity and U.S. jobs growth. The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks fell 1.7 percent and the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, finished down 1.5 percent, while around Europe, Switzerland's SMI, France's CAC 40, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 and the German DAX lost between 0.7 percent and 2 percent.
On Wall Street, stocks fell sharply on Friday after the jobs report from the Labor Department showed the U.S. economy added just 115,000 jobs in April, well below the expectations for an increase of about 165,000 jobs. While the unemployment rate edged down to 8.1 percent in April from 8.2 percent in March, the drop was largely due to a decrease in the size of the labor force. The Dow slid 1.3 percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled 2.3 percent and the S&P 500 fell 1.6 percent.
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Market Analysis
June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.