CAC 40 Down More Than 1% On U.S. Tariff Uncertainty

(RTTNews) - French stocks are down on Friday as uncertainty surrounding U.S. Government's trade policies render the mood cautious and prompt investors to lighten commitments.

The market had bounced back after the terrible setbacks it had suffered at the start of the week, but then, with the U.S. President's frequent change of stance with regard to tariffs is hurting sentiment in markets across the globe.

The benchmark CAC 40 was down 90.46 points or 1.1% at 8,107.21 a little while ago.

Teleperformance is down nearly 5%. Kering is declining 4.2%, while Bouygues, ArcelorMittal, L'Oreal, Pernod Ricard, LVMH, Renault and Hermes International are lower by 2 to 3%.

Vinci, Capgemini, Unibail Rodamco, Edenred, Thales, Dassault Systemes, Essilor, Saint Gobain, Eurofins Scientific, Safran, Airbus Group and STMicroElectronics are down 1 to 1.7%.

Vivendi is gaining more than 4% despite the conglomerate posting 6 billion euros ($6.47 billion) in net losses for 2024 after a four-way spinoff late last year.

Orange, TotalEnergies and Publicis Groupe are up with modest gains.

In political news, European Union leaders reaffirmed their support for Ukraine, pledging increased military aid during an emergency summit on Thursday.

Data from the customs office INSEE said France's trade deficit increased sharply in January as exports fell amid an increase in imports.

The trade gap rose to EUR 6.54 billion from EUR 3.48 billion in December. In the same period last year, the trade deficit totaled EUR 6.87 billion.

Exports declined 4.6% on a monthly basis, while imports climbed 1.2% in January.

Year-on-year, both exports and imports rose by 2.1% and 0.5%, respectively.

The energy balance deteriorated slightly by EUR 0.1 billion in January after a continuous improvement since June 2024, the customs office said.