Stocks on the European list went low on Thursday as concerns about US trade policy once again grew heads.
Pan-European Stoxx 600 The session fell 0.71%, with blues in all major regions finishing in negative territory.
Retailers are bright places, with the Stoxx Europe 600 retail index moving forward by 0.42%. Stocks of fashion retail giant H&M skyrocketed 9.8% above the STOXX 600 after its third quarter revenue exceeded expectations.
H&M stock price
Meanwhile, the shares in the medical technology company were sold after the Trump administration launched a national security investigation into the imports of medical devices, robotics and industrial machinery. It raises concerns that these products could become the next target of the White House tariff system.
Siemens Healthineers 3.5% drop Phillips It was 3% lower. Based in London Convatecmanufacturing a variety of medical devices, a decline of 5.6%.
Convatec stock price
Other news shows stocks of UK investment companies Peter Sill Partner More than 33% rose sharply after the company announced plans to delist the company from the London Stock Exchange.
Stocks of major software companies Sap – One of Europe’s most valuable companies also moved low on Thursday, falling 1.2% after the Commission launched an anti-trust investigation into its practices.
“SAP believes its policies and actions are in perfect alignment with the competition rules. However, we take the issues seriously and work closely with the EU Commission to resolve them,” SAP said in a statement Thursday.
“We do not expect that our involvement with the European Commission will have a significant impact on our financial performance.”
Meanwhile, a consortium of nine European banks including UniqueRedit, ingand Danke Bankannounced plans to launch new euro-denominated stub coins next year.
Unemployment data, consumer trust
In the US, the Labor Bureau’s latest weekly job data shows that unemployment claims for the week ended September 20th have fallen by 14,000 from the previous week. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Tuesday that the cooling labor market has overridden concerns about sticky inflation and encouraged the central bank’s first interest rate cuts.
Back in Europe, investors were also monitoring consumer confidence figures.
In their report on German consumer trust issued Thursday morning, GFK and the Nuremberg Market Decision Institute (NIM) said the downward trend in consumer climates has halted due to improved revenue expectations.
However, Rolf Bürkl, NIM’s director of consumer environment, said market watchers should approach data with caution.
“It’s uncertain whether this marks the beginning of a sustained turnaround. The consumer climate remains at a very low level,” he explained in the report. “The geopolitical situation, work concerns and new fears about inflation are likely to hamper a thorough recovery at this time.”
