European Stock Markets Open Lower Amid U.S.-Iran Peace Deal Uncertainty

European stock markets opened broadly lower on Friday as uncertainty over a potential U.S.-Iran peace deal weighed on investor sentiment, with the pan-European Stoxx 600 index down 0.5% shortly after 8:35 a.m. London time.

The decline came despite a sharp rebound in the previous session, as investors awaited clarity on the status of Middle East peace talks ahead of the expiry of a two-week ceasefire framework. Oil and gas stocks led gains, rising 1.2% in early trading as energy prices edged higher, while mining shares suffered the largest losses, sliding nearly 1.7%.

Among individual stocks, SAP SE shares surged approximately 6.4% in morning trade after the German enterprise software giant reported a significant increase in operating profits and cloud revenues for its latest quarter. The company announced a rise in operating profits of almost 17% and a 19% jump in cloud revenues, prompting CEO Christian Klein to tell CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” that SAP is “uniquely positioned to win in business AI” and will “double down and reinvest” more money into AI innovation.

In contrast, Renault SA shares were 2.2% lower after the French carmaker disclosed that its first-quarter sales were 3.3% below the same period last year, although group revenues rose 7.3% to reach 12.5 billion euros ($14.6 billion). The automaker cited ongoing market challenges but noted strength in certain segments despite the year-on-year sales decline.