European stock markets closed lower in Thursday trading as the Stoxx Europe 600 was down 0.2%, Germany's DAX 40 dropped 0.4%, the FTSE was off 0.1%, and France's CAC 40 declined 0.1%.

Switzerland and Germany are on bank holidays for Ascension Day. The Swiss exchange is closed, and the Frankfurt market is open.

In Italy, the consumer confidence index rose to 96.5 in May from 92.7 in April, and the composite indicator of business confidence increased to 93.1 from 91.6, the Italian National Institute of Statistics said.

In corporate news, European automaker Stellantis and Amazon.com agreed to end their joint work to develop in-car software.

Spanish financial services company Banco Santander may offer retail crypto services to customers of its digital bank and has applied for a license, Bloomberg reported.

French oil and gas company TotalEnergies unit TotalEnergies EP Nigeria agreed to sell a 12.5% non-operated stake in the OML118 Production Sharing Contract for $510 million to Shell Nigeria Exploration & Production. The block, located 120 kilometers off the Niger Delta, includes both the producing Bonga field and the developing Bonga North field.