European Stocks Close Lower On Trade War Fears

(RTTNews) - European stocks closed on a weak note on Monday after languishing in the red right through the day's session amid rising fears of a global trade war.

Selling was widespread in most of the markets across the region as investors awaited the U.S. President's fresh tariff announcement, and the impending implementation of the already announced duties this week.

U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview on Sunday that he will likely impose duties on "essentially all" of the U.S.'s trading partners.

Including a 25% levy on "all cars that are not made in the United States," several tariffs are set to take effect this week. The U.S. President is also expected to announce his plan for reciprocal tariffs.

British Prime Minister had said earlier that he had productive talks with Trump about securing exemptions from tariffs. France's Trade Minister Laurent Saint-Martin has stressed that Europe must not be "pushed around" in a trade conflict it did not seek.

The pan European Stoxx 600 fell 1.47%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 ended down 0.88%, Germany's DAX closed 1.33% down, and France's CAC 40 settled lower by 1.58%. Switzerland's SMI tumbled 1.89%.

The FTSE 100 gained about 5% in the first quarter, while the DAX and CAC 40 added about 11% and 6% respectively during the Jan - March 2025 period.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain and Sweden ended with sharp to moderate losses.

Norway and Turkiye bucked the trend and closed higher.

In the UK market, IAG dropped more than 6.5%. Entain, JD Sports Fashion, Anglo American Plc, Glencore, Easyjet, Antofagasta, Spirax Group, Melrose Industries and St. James's Place lost 3 to 5.7%.

Schroders, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Rio Tinto, Informa, WPP, M&G, Ashtead Group, Mondi, Hiscox, Weir Group, Barclays Group, Lloyds Banking Group, Natwest Group, GSK and Barratt Redrow also declined sharply.

Associated British Foods ended down by 1.57% as Primark CEO Paul Marchant resigned amid an investigation into behaviour allegations.

3i Infrastructure closed lower by 2.59% after the investment company released a pre-close trading update for the year ending 31 March 2025.

Pets At Home Group shares tumbled 8.4% after a profit warning. Pennon Group shares closed down 1%. The British utility said a water contamination outbreak which affected thousands of homes in a Southwest seaside resort pushed up 'reshaping and transformation' costs to around £36m.

British American Tobacco climbed 1.86%. Severn Trent, Imperial Brands, Smith & Nephew, Shell, Beazley, Airtel Africa and Next gained 0.8 to 1.4%.

In the German market, Porsche, Commerzbank, BASF, Brenntag, Volkswagen, Sartorius, Continental, BMW and Siemens Energy lost 3 to 4%.

Merck, Mercedes-Benz, Heidelberg Materials, Adidas, Infineon, Bayer, Siemens Healthineers, MTU Aero Engines, Deutsche Bank, Fresenius, Siemens and Daimler Truck Holding also declined sharply.

Deutsche Boerse, Covestro, Symrise and E.ON posted moderate gains.

In the French market, Capgemini, Saint-Gobain, Teleperformance, Kering, Publicis Groupe, Dassault Systemes, Vivendi and Societe Generale lost 3 to 5%.

Pernod Ricard, Edenred, STMicroElectronics, LVMH, Accor, BNP Paribas, Stellantis, Vinci, Michelin, Renault, Airbus, Sanofi and ArcelorMittal also declined sharply.

Orange, TotalEnergies and Unibail Rodamco closed higher.

In economic news, Germany's import prices grew at the fastest pace in more than two years in February, data from Destatis showed. Import prices rose 3.6% on a yearly basis in February, following January's 3.1% increase.

On a monthly basis, import prices moved up 0.3% but slower than the 1.1% increase seen in January. This was the weakest growth in the current five-month sequence of expansion.

Further, data showed that export prices were 2.5% higher than in the same period last year, marking the largest annual increase recorded since March 2023. This followed January's 2.4% increase.

Month-on-month, export price inflation softened to 0.3% from 0.7% in January.

A separate data showed retail sales increased 0.8% in February, slightly faster than the revised 0.7% rise in January. Economists had forecast sales to remain flat after January's initially estimated growth of 0.2%.

On a yearly basis, retail sales growth improved to 4.9% from 3.3% in the previous month.