European stocks slipped lower Monday as more uncertainty surrounding U.S. trade tariffs weighed on risk appetite at the start of a new week.
At 03:02 ET (08:02 GMT), the DAX index in Germany dropped 0.6%, the CAC 40 in France slipped 0.2% and the FTSE 100 in the U.K. fell 0.1%.
Subscribe to InvestingPro for more stock market analysis Trump’s tariffs hit sentiment Global equities, including the main European indices, received a boost late Friday when the U.S. Supreme Court voided most of the tariffs U.S. President Donald Trump imposed last year, finding that the emergency law he relied on did not allow the imposition of tariffs.
However, using a different statute, Trump responded over the weekend by announcing first a 10%, then a 15%, global levy that could last five months while the administration searches for more durable workarounds.
The uncertainty generated by trade policies seemingly being decided on a whim has weighed on sentiment.
"If it shakes the whole equilibrium which people in trade have got used to...it is going to bring about disruptions," European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde said Sunday on CBS’s "Face the Nation". "You want to know the rules of the road before you get in the car. It’s the same with trade. It’s the same with investment."
German Ifo to show improvement in confidence
Confidence in Europe had been on the rise, pushing the broad-based STOXX 600 index to an all-time high last week, helped by generally positive earnings as well economic data pointed to a gradual recovery in the region.
Data released on Friday showed Eurozone business activity accelerated faster than forecast this month as manufacturing swung back to growth for the first time since October.
“It might be premature, but this could be the turning point for the manufacturing sector as the headline PMI increased to growth territory," said Cyrus de la Rubia, chief economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank.
Germany’s Ifo business climate survey is due later in the session, and is expected to show another improvement in sentiment in the Eurozone’s dominant economy.
Nvidia highlights the week’s earnings There are more important earnings to digest in Europe this week, including the likes of HSBC, Deutsche Telekom, Iberdrola and Schneider Electric, but the major release will come across the pond with chip giant Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) due to report on Wednesday.
Ahead of this, PostNL cut its annual dividend by 43% and warned free cash flow could turn negative again in 2026 as the Dutch postal group’s full-year free cash flow swung to a loss of €25 million from a profit of €12 million a year earlier, even as revenue rose 2.2% to €3.32 billion.
Almirall’s newly launched eczema biologic Ebglyss tripled sales in its second year on the European market, the Barcelona-based dermatology specialist said, propelling the company past €1 billion in annual revenue for the first time.
