BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - European stocks moved sharply lower during trading on Monday, as traders expressed renewed concerns about trade after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on all Chinese imports.
In a series of posts on Twitter on Sunday, Trump said tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods would be increased to 25 percent on Friday and threatened to impose tariffs on the remaining $325 billion worth of Chinese goods 'shortly.'
The tweets from Trump raised concerns about the next round of U.S.-China trade talks scheduled for later this week in Washington.
The pan European Stoxx 600 Index slumped by 0.9 percent to 386.95 after rising 0.4 percent on Friday. The German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index also tumbled by 1 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively, while the U.K. markets were closed on the day.
Tariff worries weighed on the auto sector, with BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen, Renault and Peugeot posting notable losses on the day.
ASML Holding NV also came under pressure despite a U.S. court ruling in favor of the Dutch chip equipment maker in an intellectual property theft case against U.S. software maker Xtal.
Thyssenkrupp AG plunged 3.6 percent. The company said on Sunday it still saw scope for agreement with European antitrust regulators on a planned joint venture with Tata Steel.
French energy major Total tumbled 2.4 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.
On the other hand, Norwegian telecom major Telenor Group jumped 3.2 percent. The company is in talks with Malaysian telecom company Axiata Group Berhad for a possible non-cash merger of their telecom and infrastructure operations in Asia, in which Telenor plans to take a majority stake.
In economic news, 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.
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