2018.05.2820:37:00UTC+00European Markets End Lower, Weighed Down by Italian Stocks

European stocks ended lower on Monday, as investors monitored signs of thawing tensions between the U.S. and North Korea and reacted to renewed political turmoil in Italy.

Italian stocks closed 2.07 percent after initially opening the session higher. This after news of a dramatic setback for the country's populist parties. Spanish stocks also fell by the afternoon, with the IBEX- 35 index losing 0.6 percent to 9,764.40 amid questions about the stability of the ruling government.

Meanwhile, Germany's DAX and France's CAC were trading slightly lower at the close. Market holidays in the U.K. and U.S. made trading slow and illiquid on Monday.

The leader of Italy's largest political party called for the country's president to be impeached after choosing to veto a choice for economy minister. Luigi Di Maio of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement said President Sergio Mattarella had prompted an "institutional crisis" by rejecting euroskeptic candidate Paolo Savona.

No major political group has been able to form a majority in Italy since elections in March, leaving the eurozone's third-largest economy without a government.

Spain remains on edge after the country's main opposition party called for a vote of no confidence on Prime Minister Rajoy over a corruption case that ended in convictions for a former party treasurer and other senior members of the party. The vote is due to take place on Friday, with the debate beginning in parliament on Thursday.

The editorial sections of two major Spanish newspapers, El País and El Mundo, both called for early general elections on Saturday.

Banks were the leading sector facing pressure on Monday, led by Italian financial names, with shares of Intesa Sanpaolo falling 3.2 percent, Unione di Banche Italiane dropped 5.4 percent and Mediobanca was down six percent.

Looking at individual stocks, shares of Genmab tumbled to the bottom of the European benchmark after the Danish biotech company announced it would stop some of its lung cancer trials. Shares of the company slumped 20 percent on the news.