
Europe's Stoxx 600 falls 2.7% as investors grapple with tariff fallout
The pan-European STOXX 600 sank 2.7%, falling back to its lowest since January. German, Italian and French benchmarks closed over 3% lower, with Italian and French stocks seeing their worst fall in over two years.
A gauge of euro zone stock market volatility spiked to an eight-month high of 25.54.
The move tracked a broad selloff in global stocks as investors jumped into safe-haven government bonds and the Japanese yen.
Trump's Wednesday move to slap a 10% tariff on most U.S. imports effectively raised the rate of levies on the European Union to 20% and on China to 54%, with both trading partners vowing countermeasures.
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«The market reaction makes it very clear that last night's announcement was worse than expected,» said Hugh Gimber, global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management.
Traders ramped up bets of ECB rate cuts despite the trade war threatening to stoke inflation, on hopes policymakers would take steps to stimulate growth.
The economically sensitive euro zone banks, basic resources and oil and gas sectors retreated more than 5% each, with banks leading declines.
«If tariff levels persist, we see a bigger downward shock to growth than upside shock to inflation, that's critical for the ECB… if tariff policy is maintained I see… a more aggressive path of rate cuts in the eurozone,» Gimber said.
Worries in the run up to «Liberation Day,» as Trump termed the day of the tariff announcement, had already hit European stocks after a strong start to the year on optimism over Germany's
