European stocks surge amid hopes US will scale back tariff plans
Share:
London’s stock market was outperformed by international peers on Monday, which were buoyed amid reports that US President-elect Donald Trump was considering limiting his tariff plans. The FTSE 100 closed 25.68 points higher, or 0.31%, at 8,249.66 following a late-afternoon boost to trading.
Meanwhile, France’s top index, the Cac 40, soared nearly 300 points on Monday to close 2.24% higher, and Germany’s Dax climbed 1.56%. Reports earlier on Monday suggested that Mr Trump was scaling back his plans for higher tariffs on all US imports and instead considering a more targeted approach.
It helped spark a sell-off of the US dollar which weakened against the pound on Monday. However, Mr Trump took to social media to refute the reports which he described as “fake news”. Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst for IG, said: “Stocks have made solid gains around the world today on hopes that the incoming US administration will look to take a more targeted approach on tariffs than previously feared.
“Today’s bounce is a reminder to investors that they are now living in a Trump-dominated world. “Once the new president is installed on January 20, we can expect a lot more days like today.”. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 shot up by 1.3%, and Dow Jones was 0.9% higher by the time European markets closed.
The pound was up about 0.8% against the US dollar, at 1.2525, and was more or less flat against the euro at 1.205. In company news, Unilever shares dropped to their lowest for almost six months after the consumer goods giant was knocked by an analyst downgrade.
