was slightly lower. The 2-year yield was 2 basis points higher. “What probably reassures markets to some extent right now is there is not going to be anything like a government shutdown in France. The parties which voted against the government said they would vote against the special rule which would normally roll over the Budget for next year. So there is no immediate threat, I would say,” Gilles Moec, group chief economist at Axa, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.” Ahead of the open, the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority approved a merger between telecoms firms Vodafone and Three, subject to conditions. Vodafone shares were 1.1% higher. Oil major Shell and Norway’s Equinor meanwhile announced plans to combine their British offshore oil and gas assets to create a jointly owned energy company in Aberdeen, Scotland, set to become the U.K. North Sea’s largest independent producer