In Australia, growth concerns weighed on the stock market for the fourth straihgt day, as investors pulled back from the market in view of weaker-than-expected economic data from Japan. Mining group BHP Billiton, falling 3.5%, tracked decliners.

6:30AM European markets slip Monday on miners weakness and oil.
European shares were lower by mid-morning on Monday. The U.K. FTSE 100 index slipped 0.4% at 5,853, the German DAX Xetra 30 index dipped 0.3% at 5,777 and the French CAC-40 index edged down 0.5% at 5,049. BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Anglo American all lost more than 3% and oil and gas shares including Royal Dutch Shell and Total also lost.

Telecom Italia, mobile-phone provider, is expected to announce Monday that it will sell its mobile unit, according to an online report Sunday. Vodafone Group which gained 0.7% after it said that it plans to launch a fixed-line broadband service before the end of the year. U.K. insurance company Prudential gained 1.5% after a report suggested that reinsurance group Swiss Re has approached Prudential in a bid to buy its closed life fund business for around 5 billion pounds ($9.4 billion).

Oil prices dropped below $66 a barrel Monday amid expectations that OPEC ministers would not change their production targets when they meet later in the day. Light, sweet crude for October delivery fell 28 cents to $65.97 a barrel in electronic trading on the NYME.

Gold traded lower Monday at $596.20 an ounce, down $18.70 an ounce from Friday close of $614.90. The euro rose against the U.S. dollar. The European currency bought $1.2683 in early European trading, up from $1.2676 late Friday in New York, after a sell-off in the yen supported the U.S. currency. The British pound also strengthened against the dollar on Monday, trading at $1.8660, up from $1.8649 in New York. The dollar gained against the Japanese currency, trading at 116.96 yen, up from 116.87 on Friday.