BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - After yesterday's impressive rally, the European markets ended Friday's session with modest losses. The disappointing U.S. jobs report for March and another flare up in the war of words between the U.S. and China dented investor sentiment at the end of the trading week.
President Donald Trump threatened China with $100 billion of additional tariffs, renewing recent trade war worries. Responding to the threat from Trump, the Chinese Commerce Ministry declared it would 'not hesitate' to retaliate to new tariffs 'at any cost.'
After reporting a substantial increase in U.S. employment in the previous month, the Labor Department released a report on Friday showing job growth slowed by much more than anticipated in the month of March.
The Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment rose by 103,000 jobs in March after spiking by an upwardly revised 326,000 jobs in February.
Economists had expected an increase of about 193,000 jobs compared to the jump of 313,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.
The report also said the unemployment rate came in at 4.1 percent in March, unchanged from the five previous months. The unemployment rate had been expected to edge down to 4.0 percent.
The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index weakened by 0.35 percent. The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks decreased 0.64 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, lost 0.69 percent.
The DAX of Germany dropped 0.52 percent and the CAC 40 of France fell 0.35 percent. The FTSE 100 of the U.K. declined 0.22 percent and the SMI of Switzerland finished lower by 0.82 percent.
In Frankfurt, Deutsche Bank dropped 2.66 percent. Bloomberg reported that Matt Zames, a former JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive, is among candidates contacted by recruiters in recent weeks to replace the German bank's Chief Executive Officer John Cryan.
Infineon Technologies fell 0.84 percent on concerns that DRAM price growth is about to end.
In Paris, Vivendi lost 0.74 percent after the media firm announced its proposed list of candidates for Telecom Italia's board.
Utility Suez gained 1.62 percent in reaction to a bullish broker note.
In London, Marks & Spencer tumbled 1.82 percent after Citigroup downgraded its rating on the stock. Next Plc shares also fell over 3 percent.
Telecom Italia rallied 6.94 percent in Milan after Italian state lender CDP said it would buy a 5 percent stake in the firm.
Germany's industrial production declined at the fastest pace in two-and-a-half years in February largely on weak construction activity. Industrial output dropped 1.6 percent month-on-month in February, in contrast to a revised 0.1 percent rise seen in January, data from Destatis showed Friday. Output was expected to climb 0.3 percent.
Germany's construction sector contracted for the first time in more than three years in March due to colder-than-usual weather, survey data from IHS Markit showed Friday. The construction Purchasing Managers' Index fell to 47.0 in March from 52.7 in February. This was the first time since January 2015 that the score fell below the 50.0 no-change level.
France's trade deficit decreased in February as the pace of decline in imports was bigger than the fall in exports, the customs office said Friday. The trade deficit narrowed to EUR 5.2 billion from EUR 5.4 billion in January. The shortfall was expected to fall to EUR 5.3 billion.
France's current account deficit remained stable in February, data from the Bank of France showed Friday. The seasonally and working-day-adjusted current account deficit came in at EUR 2.0 billion in February, unchanged from January.
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