BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - European stocks tumbled on Monday amid rising geopolitical tensions after U.S. President Donald Trump doubled down on his plan to acquire Greenland.
Trump said NATO had warned Denmark for years about the 'Russian threat' to Greenland and claimed Copenhagen had failed to act. 'Now it is time, and it will be done!!!' Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform ahead of this week's World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos.
The U.S. President's announcement of a 10% tariff on several EU countries from next month, which raises the tariff on all imports to US to 25%, and reports that EU is consideriang retaliatory move against the U.S. weighed on stocks.
The EU is reported to be considering tariffs of 93 billion euros of US goods or restricting US firms' access to its internal market.
The pan European Stoxx 600 ended down by 1.19%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 closed lower by 0.39%, Germany's DAX ended with a loss of 1.34% and France's CAC fell 1.76%. Switzerland's SMI lost 1.02%.
Among other markets in Europe, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Iceland, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden closed with sharp to moderate losses.
Greece, Russia and Turkiye ended higher.
In the UK market, Diploma, Melrose Industries, Games Workshop, Ashtead Group and 3i Group lost 3.2 to 4%.
Burberry Group, Halma, Relx, JD Sports Fashion, Scottish Mortgage, Rentokil Initial, Auto Trader Group, Metlen Energy & Metals, Convatec Group, Schroders and Croda International ended lower by 2 to 3%.
Beazley skyrocketed nearly 43% after Zurich offered 1,280 pence per share in cash for Beazley, a premium of about 56% to the stock's previous close, valuing the specialist insurer at roughly £7.7 billion.
Hiscoc soared 9.1%. Fresnillo closed with a gain of 6.7% and BT Group surged 3.6%. Endeavour Mining, Imperial Brands, Admiral Group, Antofagasta, Next, Severn Trent, Vodafone Group, British American Tobacco, Prudential and Phoenix Group Holdings also ended with impressive gains.
In the German market, Adidas closed down by about 5%. Qiagen, Porsche Automobil Holding, BMW, Siemens Healthineers, Deutsche Post, SAP, Deutsche Bank and Daimler Truck Holding lost 3 to 4.1%.
Volkswagen, Brenntag, Mercedes-Benz, Beiersdorf, Commerzbank, Siemens, Fresenius, BASF, Siemens Energy and Merck also ended notably lower.
Bayer climbed nearly 7% after the US Supreme Court agreed to review the 'Durnell' glyphosate case'. The court agreed Friday to review Bayer's challenge to a $1.25 million Missouri jury verdict over claims the German company failed to warn that Roundup could cause cancer.
Deutsche Telekom gained about 2.1% and Rheinmetall ended with a gain of about 1.1%.
In the French market, STMicroElectronics shed more than 5%. LVMH, Kering, Dassault Systemes, Hermes International, Airbus and Capgemini lost 3 to 4.5%.
Schneider Electric, Sanofi, Renault, Legrand, Saint-Gobain, Stellantis, Danone, Michelin, Societe Generale, Accor, Pernod Ricard, Air Liquide, EssilorLuxottica, TotalEnergies and L'Oreal also dned notably lower.
Carrefour and Edenred posted modest gains. Thales moved higher
In European economic news, Eurozone inflation eased more than initially estimated in December, final data from Eurostat showed.
The harmonized index of consumer prices rose by revised 1.9% year-on-year following an increase of 2.1% in each of the previous two months.
Eurostat initially reported that inflation hit the 2% target in December.
Core inflation, which excludes prices of energy and fresh food, slowed to 2.3%, in line with estimate, from 2.4% logged in the previous three months.
Energy prices decreased 1.9% year-on-year after a 0.5% drop in the previous month. The decline was the worst since August when they fell 2%. Services inflation softened marginally to 3.4% from 3.5%.
The HICP rose 0.2% month-on-month in December, in line with the initial estimate released on January 7.
A report from property website Rightmove said UK house prices registered its biggest monthly increase since June 2015 as market sentiment recovered following the uncertainty surrounding the Budget.
Average property prices increased 2.8% in January from December, the largest ever price increase for the month of January. Also, this was the largest monthly increase since June 2015. On an annual basis, house prices gained 0.5% in January.
In the two weeks post-Christmas, buyer demand surged 57% compared to the two weeks before Christmas. Meanwhile, the number of newly-listed homes for sale jumped 81%.
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