European Stocks Fall as Investors Sweat About Trump Tariffs and Interest Rates
European stocks were having a rough session on Wednesday as investors fretted about U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s tariff threats and tried to figure out where interest rates are headed.
The continent’s flagship Stoxx 600 index fell 0.4% in morning trading. Paris’s CAC 40 dropped 1.1% as the market worried that France’s Prime Minister Michel Barnier might fail to pass a budget for 2025. Frankfurt’s Dax was down 0.5%, but London’s FTSE 100 bucked the trend with a 0.1% gain.
Trump appointed China hawk Jamieson Greer as his next tariff czar late Tuesday. Although the President-elect hasn’t yet promised to impose levies on European countries, he could turn his attention there down the line.