European stock markets closed lower on Thursday, following U.S. President Donald Trump's stronger-than-expected trade tariff announcement.
The regional Stoxx 600 index ended down about 2.7%. Big retail names with global supply chains suffered, with German sportswear retailer Adidas down 11%.
Shipping giant Maersk, widely seen as a barometer of global trade, fell 9.5%.
The Stoxx Autos index fell 3.9% as Trump's 25% tariffs on imported vehicles to the U.S. came into effect and added to existing duties on steel and aluminum.
Other big losers included banks, down 5.6%, and technology, down 4.5%. Utilities, traditionally a defensive play in times of market turmoil, rose nearly 3%.
Trump on Wednesday signed off on an aggressive and broad-based "reciprocal tariff" policy, with his plan to set a base tariff of 10% across the board.
The president announced a series of "reciprocal tariffs" on more than 180 countries and territories, including 20% tariffs on goods imported from the EU and 10% on goods from the UK.
The UK's FTSE 100 fell 1.6%, with France's CAC 40 and Germany's DAX posting deeper losses of 3.3% and 3.1%, respectively.
The US's biggest economic rival, China, was hit with new tariffs of 34% that would add to the current 20% tariffs on US imports from China, bringing the total effective tariff to 54%. (Newsmaker23)
Source: CNBC
Tested EN...
Asian stock markets weakened for the second consecutive day, indicating that the initial rally that had been "speedy" at the start of the year is starting to lose steam. At the same time, US governmen...
US stocks were mixed on Wednesday as investors weighed uneven economic data against expectations for eventual Federal Reserve easing, with the S&P 500 easing 0.2% and the Dow Jones sliding 0.8% fr...
European stocks were in mixed territory on Wednesday morning, as regional market jitters grow over U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to annex Greenland. The pan-European Stoxx 600 was little chang...
Asian stock markets weakened slightly on Wednesday after posting their best start to the year in history. The decline was driven by a decline in Japanese stocks amid escalating tensions with China. Th...
Oil prices stabilized on Thursday (February 12th), as the market reassigned a risk premium to US-Iran tensions despite US inventory data showing swelling domestic supplies. This movement confirms one thing: geopolitical headlines are still more...
Gold prices weakened slightly on Thursday (February 12th), as more solid US employment data reduced market confidence in an imminent Federal Reserve interest rate cut. The strong employment data prompted market participants to shift expectations of...
The Hang Seng Index reversed its downward trend in Hong Kong on Thursday (February 12th), weakening by around 0.9% to around 27,000 after a strong session earlier. This decline halted the momentum of the short term rally, as investors began to...