European equities hovered around the flatline Monday morning, the last trading day of the month, as investors digested merger news and focused on earnings.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 was 0.05 percent higher with sectors moving in different directions.
The retail sector was marginally higher in mid-morning deals, following news that Asda and Sainsbury's will merge in a roughly £15 billion ($20.67 billion) deal. Though Sainsbury's shares were up by 14 percent, other retailers, such as Tesco and Morrisons initially fell about 3 percent on the news, but have recovered slightly since the market open. The former is set to lose its place as the U.K.'s largest grocer if the merger is approved by regulators.
Food and beverages was off by about 0.2 percent, on rating downgrades and earnings.
Looking at the European benchmark, WPP followed Sainsbury's at the top of the index. The advertising giant presented higher-than-expected net sales in the first quarter of the year, despite the exit of its founder Martin Sorrell. The stock jumped nearly 7 percent.
On the other hand, Seb shares fell about 4 percent on Monday morning. This was after announcing a drop in its first-quarter net profit.
In Italy, Telecom Italia chief Amos Genish said that his position in the firm would be "untenable" if activist fund Elliott gets the majority of the board seats during a shareholder vote Friday, Reuters reported. Separately, T-Mobile and Sprint said Sunday they had agreed on a $26 billion merger deal.
In Asia, shares closed higher as concerns over North Korea eased. Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, is set to invite U.S. experts and journalists to witness the shutdown of a nuclear site in May, Reuters reported.
Back in Europe, Germany, France and the U.K. have joined forces against potential new tariffs from the U.S. On Sunday, the three countries urged the U.S. administration to not apply metal tariffs to Europe. In March, President Donald Trump imposed a 25 percent duty on steel imports and a 10 percent duty on aluminum but Europe got a temporary exemption from the tariffs. Such an exemption is set to end on May 1.
In terms of data, German retail sales came in lower-than-expected on Monday morning. In March, sales fell 0.6 percent on the month in real terms, the Federal Statistics Office said. This was the fourth consecutive fall.
Later in the session, there will be preliminary inflation numbers in Italy and Germany at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. London time, respectively.