European stock markets opened lower on Monday after a weekend of violent protests and looting in France, as business owners count the cost and accuse the government of failing to protect them.
Stocks across Europe fell at the start of trading on Monday as France reeled from one of its most violent weekends in years, with shopkeepers and CEOs alike tallying the damage and accusing the authorities of leaving them exposed.
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The Euro Stoxx 50 only traded 0.1% lower but the broader pan-European Stoxx 600 was down over 0.6% at the start of Monday’s session.
France’s CAC 40 traded 0.5% lower as, for example, shares in retailer Carrefour, which said 50 of its stores were targeted by looters, were down more than 2%.
French borrowing costs also rose, as a divided parliament debates the 2027 budget, with the 10-year government bond yield at 4.86% after hitting its highest level since 2002 earlier this month.
The gap with German debt, a gauge of investor nerves, stood at 143.5 basis points, having topped 150 in early October, the widest since the euro debt crisis.
Ratings agency Moody’s reviews France’s Aa3 credit rating, which carries a negative outlook, on Friday.
As for other European indexes, the UK’s FTSE 100, Italy’s FTSE MIB and Spain’s IBEX 35 all traded between 0.4% and 0.6% lower than their Friday close.
Germany’s DAX led the decline and dropped over 0.8% while the Netherlands’ AEX was the outlier, and traded more than 0.4% higher.
The euro was 0.2% lower against the US dollar at around $1.121 and also dropped 0.2% against the British pound to roughly £0.841.
Last week, it sank to its lowest level against the US dollar since mid-May 2025, and against the British pound since early June 2025, with France’s debt troubles and a stronger US dollar outweighing two European Central Bank rate hikes this year.
The ECB next meets on 29 October.
French business owners count the cost
Authorities counted about 550,000 people at Saturday’s nationwide marches against rising living costs and the state of French schools, which descended into rioting and looting in Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux and other cities.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said 2,400 people were arrested, while injured police officers, gendarmes and firefighters reportedly number anywhere between 500 and nearly 1,000.
Nuñez, who admitted a lack of anticipation and a loss of control in some cities, offered to resign, but President Emmanuel Macron refused, his office said on Monday, arguing that the security forces needed unbroken command.
Carrefour CEO Alexandre Bompard, who heads the French retail federation FCD, said about 1,500 shops were hit, with a bill running into hundreds of millions of euros, and that the Republic must protect its shopkeepers.
At Carrefour alone, "the cost of the repairs will run to well over ten million euros," Bompard stated.
Thierry Guibert, CEO of fashion brand Lacoste, whose Lacoste and Aigle stores were looted, urged the French state on social media to act without delay to protect businesses and staff.
Thierry Cotillard, head of supermarket chain Intermarché, also said on social media he was deeply angry, while Patrick Martin, head of employers’ group Medef, called the looting unacceptable.
Smaller traders were blunter.
The boss of outdoor retailer Snowleader said he alerted police as looters forced open the door of his Lyon shop, only to be told to wait and follow up on Tuesday if no one came, while the head of Marseille’s city-centre traders’ association said shopkeepers had been abandoned by the authorities.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu was set to chair a crisis meeting on Monday, and Commerce Minister Serge Papin to meet trade federations, banks and insurers.
Meanwhile, unions have called a national strike for 5 November.
