BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - French stocks fell heavily on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Chinese goods, citing slow progress in trade talks. China's official response is awaited.
The benchmark CAC 40 was down 119 points or 2.14 percent at 5,429 in opening deals after closing up 0.2 percent on Friday.
Energy major Total tumbled 2.7 percent. The company has reached a binding agreement with Occidental to acquire Anadarko assets in Algeria, Ghana, Mozambique and South Africa for a consideration of $8.8 billion.
Airbus shares dropped over 2 percent on a Reuters report that the aerospace and defense major is considering suing the German government over the ban on arms exports to Saudi Arabia.
In economic releases, Eurozone investor confidence improved strongly in May to its highest level since November, exceeding economists' expectations, survey data from the behavioral finance research group Sentix showed.
The investor confidence index rose for a third successive month to 5.3 from -0.3 in April. Economists had forecast a score of 1.1.
Eurozone retail sales were unchanged from the previous month in March, while they were expected to fall modestly, preliminary data from the statistical office Eurostat showed.
Retail sales were flat on a monthly basis, after rising 0.5 percent in February.
The final eurozone PMI for April came in slightly ahead of the flash estimate.
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