European shares closed lower on Friday, as losses in banks and healthcare stocks weighed at the end of a week marred by US President Donald Trump’s tariff announcements, with the European Union also awaiting a letter on levies from Mr Trump.
Mr Trump on Thursday announced a 35 per cent tariff on Canadian imports, set to kick in next month, and warned that the levy could climb higher if Canada retaliates.
Dublin
The Irish index of shares closed the week down almost 1 per cent as declines in banks, travel and food stocks weighed on the market.
Mirroring the trends in wider European banking shares, Bank of Ireland and AIB both lost ground on Friday, with the latter down almost 1 per cent and the former down almost 2 per cent by the closing bell. Permanent TSB declined by less than half a per cent.
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Kerry Group shed 1.26 per cent, declining to €90.40, while Glanbia fared better at a 0.16 per cent loss.
Insulation specialist Kingspan was off 1.37 per cent by the end of the day, finishing at €71.95.
Shares in Ryanair fell just under half a per cent, but hotels group Dalata fared better, ending the day up 1.5 per cent.
London
The UK’s FTSE 100 eased off record highs on Friday, as investors grew cautious on concerns about slowing domestic growth and US tariff policies.
The exporter-heavy FTSE 100 and the domestically focused FTSE 250 index both dipped 0.4 per cent.
Still, the FTSE 100 logged its biggest weekly percentage gain in two months, led by miners as Mr Trump’s threats to impose tariffs on imported copper drove a surge in metals prices.
BP shares rose 3.4 per cent to top of the blue-chip index after the energy giant forecast a higher upstream output production for second-quarter. SSP Group was the heaviest faller on the midcap index, falling 8 per cent after UBS downgraded the restaurant chain operator to “sell”.
Europe
The pan-European STOXX 600 index closed 1 per cent lower, snapping a four-day win streak and clocking its biggest single-day decline in over three-months.
Germany’s DAX came off its record high levels seen this week to fall 0.8 per cent.
European banks were at the forefront of the sell-off with a 1.8 per cent fall. Norway’s largest bank DNB lagged with an 8.8 per cent slide after reporting an earnings miss for the second quarter, hit by weaker than expected interest income and higher loan losses.
Healthcare stocks, which hold a weight of more than 12 per cent on the STOXX, also saw heavy losses on Friday with Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk down 3.6 per cent.
Despite Friday’s losses, most European blue-chip bourses clocked weekly gains in excess of 1 per cent.
New York
The S&P 500 and the Dow fell on Friday and were headed for a downbeat week as Mr Trump’s tariff offensive amplified the uncertainty swirling around the US trade policy.
At 11.47am in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.68 per cent, while the S&P 500 lost 0.27 per cent.
The S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq were on course to close the week in the red, while the Dow looked set to end its three-week winning streak – the longest stretch since January – and braced for its steepest weekly drop in over a month.
Markets this week remained mostly subdued. The only upside was Nvidia shattering all records to become the first company to top a $4 trillion valuation.
Its shares hit a fresh record high on the day, helping the tech-heavy Nasdaq stay out of the red. The index held steady at 20,633.38 points.
Denim maker Levi Strauss jumped 10.9 per cent after the company raised its annual revenue and profit forecasts and beat quarterly estimates.
Meta Platforms fell 1.2 per cent. A report said the company was unlikely to make more changes to its pay-or-consent model, potentially inviting fresh EU antitrust charges and hefty daily fines. – Additional reporting: Reuters
