European equities dive on renewed fear of trade war

On Friday, European equities slumped for a second day, following news that US leader is slapping more duties on China.

The STOXX 600 went down by about 0.5%, finding itself on track for its greatest slump in a fortnight. The DAX went down by nearly 1% in Germany.

Clashes between the EU and America suppressed car equities SXAP – they slumped by 1% thus becoming the worst-performing sector.

US leader has rejected an EU offer to terminate auto levies, telling that its trade policies turn out to be as bad as China’s. On the contrary, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told that the European bloc would respond if America slapped auto duties.

Volkswagen, BMW, Daimler, and Continental appeared to be the biggest weights on the DAX, slumping by 1%-1.3%.

Besides this, Whitbread jumped by 19% right after the British company agreed to have its Costa Coffee chain sold to Coca-Cola for nearly 3.9 billion pounds.

Traders told that the deal's value surpassed the market's hopes by 500 million to 900 million pounds. It was wrapped up faster than anticipated. Most of the funds are going to be returned to shareholders.

Sage went down by 9%, which appears to be the biggest slump among European equities, after the UK software maker shocked the market by announcing Chief Executive Stephen Kelly would retire in May next year.

Air France went down by nearly 2.5%, extending Thursday's dips after Kepler Cheuvreux cut the stock from “buy” to “hold,” citing worries about capacity surge, strikes, and fuel costs.

Besides this, German carrier Lufthansa inched down by 4.2%, after Citi had the stock cut to "sell", telling that perceptions of consolidation in Germany turned out to be extremely enthusiastic. Instead, Citi preferred low-cost airlines Ryanair and EasyJet.

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