This is CNBC's live blog covering European markets.

European markets retreated on Monday as investors looked ahead to the last U.S. Federal Reserve meeting of 2022 this week, as well as the latest inflation reading.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed down 0.4% provisionally, with mining stocks shedding 1.6% to lead losses as all major bourses traded in negative territory and only oil and gas stocks made gains, adding 0.3%.

The Fed will begin its two-day meeting on Tuesday and economists widely expect the U.S. central bank to raise rates by half a percentage point when the meeting concludes Wednesday.

Thursday will also see monetary policy decisions from the Bank of England, European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank.

The latest reading for the U.S. consumer price index is also slated for Tuesday. Analysts polled by Reuters expect the index rose 0.3% in November.

European stocks close lower as markets brace for rate hike decisions

The pan-European Stoxx 600 fell 0.4% as investors prepared for monetary policy announcements from the U.S. on Wednesday and the European Central Bank and Bank of England Thursday.

France's CAC 40, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 and Germany's DAX all shed around 0.4%. All sectors were in the red bar oil and gas, which rose 0.3%. Mining stocks led losses, down 1.6%.

Markets expect both Europe and the U.K. to slow the pace of rate rises to 50 basis points.

Last week, the Stoxx 600 index posted its first weekly drop for eight weeks.

— Jenni Reid

Stocks on the move: Chr. Hansen remains buoyed by Novozymes merger

Biotech firm Chr. Hansen remained the top performer among Stoxx 600 stocks in late afternoon trade on news of its merger with Novozymes.

The company was up 19.2%, as its new partner plunged 15.3%. Analysts at Jeffries said the deal will see Novozymes pay a 49% premium to Chr. Hansen.

Germany's Carl Zeiss Meditec added 5% after announcing it would hike its dividend from 0.90 euros to 1.10 euros in March.

But markets were generally downbeat, with mining stocks shedding 1.7%, retail stocks falling 1.3% and technology down 1.1%.

— Jenni Reid

Stocks open higher to start the week

U.S. stocks opened higher Monday morning, ahead of a week with several highly-anticipated events in the ongoing fight against inflation.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 76 points, or 0.2%. The S&P 500 gained 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.1%.

— Tanaya Macheel

Markets are priced for optimism, but people should be relatively cautious: Man Group

Mark Jones, deputy CEO of Man Group, discusses the outlook for markets in 2023 in the context of what the U.S. Federal Reserve might do.

Stocks on the move: Chr. Hansen up 18%, Novozymes down 15% after merger announcement

Shares of Danish biotech companies Novozymes and Chr. Hansen were the biggest movers on Monday orning after they announced plans to merge.

Novozymes shares fell 15% by mid-afternoon while Chr. Hansen shares soared 18%.

- Elliot Smith

New challenges mean timing for CEO change is right, says Maersk's incoming CEO

Vincent Clerc, incoming CEO of the Danish freight giant, says "after two years of bumper profits and supply chain disruptions because of the pandemic, we have a different set of circumstances."

Microsoft buys near 4% stake in London Stock Exchange and launches 10-year partnership

U.S. tech giant Microsoft on Monday announced a 10-year partnership with the London Stock Exchange Group and took a near 4% stake in the U.K. bourse operator.

The partnership involves next-generation data and analytics, as well as cloud infrastructure solutions, according to a statement by the LSEG. It involves a new data infrastructure for the London exchange and analytics and modelling solutions with Microsoft Azure, AI, and Microsoft Teams.

Read the full story here.

- Matt Clinch

Stocks on the move: Chr. Hansen up 22%, Novozymes down 13% after merger announcement

Shares of Danish biotech companies Novozymes and Chr. Hansen were the biggest movers on Monday orning after they announced plans to merge.

Novozymes shares fell 13% in early trade while Chr. Hansen shares soared 22%.

- Elliot Smith

Bioscience firms Novozymes and Chr. Hansen to merge in biggest-ever Danish deal

Biotechnology firms Novozymes and Chr. Hansen agreed to combine in what will be the biggest-ever merger between two Danish companies.

The merger, announced in a joint statement Monday, will see the dissolution of Chr. Hansen and is expected to complete in the fourth quarter of 2023.

The new biosolutions group will have annual revenues of approximately 3.5 billion euros ($3.7 billion), the companies said.

Read the full story here.

- Elliot Smith

UK economy grows 0.5% in October

The U.K. economy grew by 0.5% month-on-month in October, slightly ahead of a Reuters poll projecting a 0.4% rebound from September's 0.6% contraction.

The previous month's figures were affected by a one-off public holiday to mark the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.

The Bank of England projects that the economy is already in a recession that could endure throughout 2023.

Jeremy Batstone-Carr, European Strategist at Raymond James, said Monday's figures from the Office for National Statistics "flatter to deceive, concealing an otherwise-shrinking economy."

"Government spending, residential investment, and a boost from net trade have sugar coated GDP in Q3, but that coating is now dissolving as the housing market and global economy weakens," Batstone-Carr said.

"The economy is no longer teetering on the edge of recession; it is fully in one. We are now feeling the pain of both relentless inflation and interest rate rises, which are both crippling business and household spending. The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee is divided on how sharply to rise base rates, but it looks increasingly likely we will be living with another 0.5% increase by the end of this week."

CNBC Pro: Shares of this under-the-radar global miner are set to rally 50%, analyst says

Shares in a little-known London-listed miner are set to rise by 50%, according to Ben Davis, a mining analyst at Liberum Capital.

The company, which extracts metals such as platinum, palladium, and chrome, also offers an 8% dividend yield.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Ganesh Rao

CNBC Pro: Dan Niles is betting the S&P 500 will hit a new low in 2023. Here’s how he is trading it

Dan Niles' Satori Fund is beating the market this year. He shares what's behind the outperformance and how he's trading the market as recession looms.

Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Zavier Ong

European markets: Here are the opening calls

European markets are heading for a lower open on Monday as investors look ahead to the next U.S. Federal Reserve meeting.

The U.K.'s FTSE index is expected to open 17 points lower at 7,457, Germany's DAX 71 points lower at 14,290, France's CAC down 31 points at 6,640 and Italy's FTSE MIB down 134 points at 24,120, according to data from IG.

There are no major earnings. Data releases include the U.K.'s preliminary third quarter gross domestic product figures.

— Holly Ellyatt