[MARKET ANALYSIS] European bourses mixed in quiet newsflow; NQ underperforms, following tech lower in APAC trade

European bourses kicked off the trading week on the backfoot. However, as the morning progressed sentiment has picked up off worst levels to currently trade mixed; STOXX 600 -0.1%. European sectors hold a slight positive bias. Basic Resources leads, buoyed by gains in underlying metals prices; Travel & Leisure benefits from lower energy prices and Media completes the top three. Autos reside at the top of the pile, joined closely by Healthcare and Tech. For the Energy sector itself, recent sources have suggested that six countries have called for the EU to discuss a mechanism to tax windfall profits of oil companies, amidst the recent Iran conflict. The EU next meet between September 18-19 in Ireland. Key movers: Evolution (+1%) rejects Candle Lake’s SEK 695/shr offer, saying it does not reflect fair market value. Shell (-0.2%) fairs a touch better vs peers (BP/TotalEnergies -0.9%). Focus has been on an FT sources piece, which noted that Shell draws interest from bidders for its USD 8bln US chemicals assets. However, the piece highlighted that the USD 8bln valuation would be a "steep discount" to the amount that Shell had invested in its US chemicals facilities. US equity futures (ES -0.2% NQ -0.7% RTY -0.1%) are trading in the red, with clear underperformance in the NQ. The tech-heavy index appears to follow the poor performance seen in APAC trade overnight, where the likes of Kioxia (-6.7%), SK Hynix (-3.4%) and Samsung Electronics (-8.7%) all extended lower. In the pre-market, Alibaba (-3.4%) moves lower after announcing a USD 10.2bln share placement, whilst Michael Burry sold his Alibaba shares to build a larger stake in JD.com.