European equities stand still as world braces for trade conflict

On Friday, European equities started in positive territory due to the fact the trade clashes between China and the United States intensified, with American duties on $34 billion on Chinese imports coming true and China instantly responding.

The STOXX 600 index managed to ascend by 0.3%, Germany's exporter-heavy DAX inched up by 0.2%.

As for Chinese stock markets, they tacked on in late trading having reached two-year minimums in the morning trading session.

A great number of market participants are assured that the European bloc is going to stay on the sidelines of the trade conflict. They also suggest that the American confrontation with China appears to be a typical negotiating posture that won’t provoke a slump in global trade.

With high expectations for another corporate earnings season bursting out in less than two weeks, a lot of market participants didn’t want to have European stocks sold.

As some sources revealed, second-quarter revenues for STOXX 600 companies are supposed to edge up about 8.7% from the same period of 2017.

As for individual equities, stocks in Britain's Inmarsat reported the worst performance, inching down close to 9% right after it had a takeover offer from Echostar rejected.

Additionally, Swedish lock maker Assa Abloy went down abruptly, losing 7% having reported a one-off costs of 6 billion crowns.

Meanwhile, Altice Europe tacked on by 4.7%. It’s because speculation about probable mergers within France’s telecoms are actually resurfacing, while French conglomerate Bouygues told it was ready to grasp opportunities to have its telecoms business beefed up.

Germany's Thyssenkrupp managed to ascend by 3.4% after its CEO proposed to step down, pointing to soaring investor pressure for a greater restructuring of the group.

As for the equities of French investment group Eurazeo, it tacked on by 4.5%, which is the STOXX 600's top performance.

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