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Investing.com - European stocks retreated Friday, ending the week on a negative note amid uncertainty as U.S. President Donald Trump’s deadline for trade deals draws nearer.
At 09:20 ET (13:20 GMT), the DAX index in Germany dropped 0.5%, the CAC 40 in France slipped 0.9% and the FTSE 100 in the U.K. fell 0.1%.
Trading activity has been muted Friday with U.S. markets closed for the Independence Day public holiday.
Uncertainty over trade deals
U.S. President Donald Trump’s deadline for higher tariff rates looms on July 9, and despite initial confidence from U.S. officials that there would be a flurry of deals, just three have been announced so far.
Trump said on Thursday that Washington will begin sending letters to major economies by Friday outlining what tariff rates their exports to the U.S. will be subject to.
Trump added that the tariffs will range between 10% to 20% and 60% to 70%, and that the levies will take effect from August 1.
Although the outcome of ongoing trade negotiations between the U.S. and European Union remains unclear, there are risks of an escalation in tensions, according to analysts at Barclays (LON:BARC).
European trade officials met with their Trump administration counterparts in Washington this week, as a pause to sweeping "reciprocal" U.S. tariffs is due to expire on Wednesday.
But a trade agreement has yet to be reached, with the EU pushing for a deal "in principle" that would include immediate tariff relief for key sectors.
Elsewhere, China has slapped duties of up to 34.9% over a five-year period on brandy imported from the European Union, the country’s Commerce Ministry said in a statement on Friday.
The levies, which will take effect from July 5, come after an anti-dumping investigation launched last year into European brandy, which is mostly comprised of cognac from France.
However, some companies that had previously agreed to minimum price commitments, such as Remy Cointreau ’s (EPA:RCOP) Remy Martin and Pernod Ricard ’s (EPA:PERP) Martell & Co, will not face the higher tariff rate unless those pledges are breached, the Commerce Ministry said.
German industrial orders slumped in May
Data released earlier Friday showed that German industrial orders fell much more than expected in May, dropping by 1.4% on the previous month on a seasonally and calendar adjusted basis.
The slump was primarily due to the substantial decline of 17.7% month-on-month in orders in the computer, electronic and optical products sector, where several large-scale orders were recorded in April.
Despite the one-off nature of this decline, it does still point to the uncertain nature of the recovery of the eurozone’s largest economy.
The European Central Bank has cut rates by two percentage points since June 2024, but signalled a pause for this month, even if financial investors still see another cut to 1.75% later this year.
Air France-KLM to lift SAS stake
In the corporate sector, Air France KLM (EPA:AIRF) announced plans to increase its stake in SAS to 60.5% from 19.9% by acquiring the full stakes held by Castlelake and Lind Invest.
The group said that the deal would create synergies while allowing it to expand into the Scandinavian market.
French train maker Alstom (EPA:ALSO) said it had received a €2 billion euro ($2.4 billion) order from the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority to supply M-9A railcars for the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad.
Oil prices retreat ahead of OPEC+ meeting
Crude prices slipped lower Friday in thin trading ahead of the weekend’s OPEC+ meeting, which is expected to result in an increase in production.
At 09:20 ET, Brent futures dropped 0.8% to $68.22 a barrel and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 0.9% to $66.42 a barrel.
Both contracts were up between 1% to 2% this week, bouncing back from double-digit losses during the prior week.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, known as OPEC+, is expected to once again hike production by 411,000 barrels a day in August, at the weekend’s meeting, following similar hikes in the past three months.
The production hikes come as the OPEC+ scales back two years of sharp production cuts, in part to offset the economic impact of persistently low oil prices.
Elsewhere, U.S. news website Axios reported on Thursday that the U.S. was planning to meet with Iran next week to restart nuclear talk, while Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Tehran remains committed to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.