FRANKFURT (Bernama-dpa-AFX) — 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, reported dpa-AFX news.
Selling was widespread in most of the markets across the region as investors awaited US President Donald Trump’s fresh tariff announcement, and the impending implementation of the already announced duties this week.
Trump said in an interview on Sunday that he will likely impose duties on “essentially all” of the US’s trading partners.
Including a 25 per cent levy on “all cars that are not made in the United States,” several tariffs are set to take effect this week.
Trump is also expected to announce his plan for reciprocal tariffs. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer 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 per cent. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 ended down 0.88 per cent, Germany’s DAX closed 1.33 per cent down, and France’s CAC 40 settled lower by 1.58 per cent. Switzerland’s SMI tumbled 1.89 per cent. The FTSE 100 gained about 5 per cent in the first quarter, while the DAX and CAC 40 added about 11 per cent and 6 per cent 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 Turkey bucked the trend and 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 per cent on a yearly basis in February, following January’s 3.1 per cent increase.
On a monthly basis, import prices moved up 0.3 per cent but slower than the 1.1 per cent 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 per cent higher than in the same period last year, marking the largest annual increase recorded since March 2023. This followed January’s 2.4 per cent increase.
Month-on-month, export price inflation softened to 0.3 per cent from 0.7 per cent in January. Separate data showed retail sales increased 0.8 per cent in February, slightly faster than the revised 0.7 per cent rise in January. Economists had forecast sales to remain flat after January’s initially estimated growth of 0.2 per cent.On a yearly basis, retail sales growth improved to 4.9 per cent from 3.3 per cent in the previous month.
