Europe close: Stocks finish lower amid ongoing trade tensions

Stocks finished the session broadly lower after the US president 'upped the ante', opening the door to even heavier US tariffs on Chinese made goods, and following the release of weaker-than-expected US non-farm payrolls data for March.

In an interview with CNBC, which was posted to the European Central Bank's website, governing council member Benoit Coeure warned that: "If this would move into a full-fledged trade war, this has a potential to have quite damaging consequences for growth and jobs, globally, including in the US."

It also triggered an angry response from a spokesman at China's Commerce Ministry who according to Bloomberg said the Asian giant would respond "immediately, intensively and without any hesitation" to any new tariff proposals from Washington.

Against that backdrop, by the closing bell the benchmark Stoxx 600 was lower by 0.35% or 1.31 points at 374.82, alongside a 0.52% or 63.92 point fall to 12,241.27 for the German Dax and a dip of 0.17% or 39.63 points to 22,929.87 on the FTSE Mibtel.

From a sector standpoint, the Stoxx 600's Autombiles&Parts subindex fared worst, retreating 1.77% to 623.66, alongside a fall of 1.67% for a gauge of Basic Resources companies to 446.32.

Currency markets were initially little changed in reaction to the news out of Beijing and Washington, although the US dollar index later slipped on the back of weak US jobs data, while commodities were mostly lower, although agricultural futures would later recover.

Even so, after the close of markets in London, economists at Barclays Research were telling clients: "Market discomfort is set to continue, in our view, as a result of the return of volatility and with no end in sight of the anti-trade tit-for-tat. Barclays' global manufacturing confidence index eased for the third consecutive month in March, posing risks to our positive view on global growth.

"At this juncture, we think it is wise for market participants to take a break from risk and wait to see if this is just a pause that refreshes."

Coincidentally, the economic news coming from the Continent on Friday was mixed.

France's trade deficit narrowed slightly in February, slipping from -€5.4bn in January to -€5.2bn in February (consensus: -€5.3bn), as imports declined by 1.4% month-on-month, according to INSEE.

Separately, it was reported that France's current account deficit increased marginally in the fourth quarter to reach 1.2% of gross domestic product.

In Germany on the other hand, the Ministry of Finance said that the country's industrial production shrank by 1.6% month-on-month in February (consensus: 0.2%).

Corporate-wise, Saudi Aramco and Total were expected to ink a deal to expand their joint-venture refinery in the Kingdom, Reuters reported.

On the broker front, analysts at Barclays Research weighed in upgrading their recommendations on shares of Unicredit and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena by one notch, to 'overweight' and 'equalweight', respectively.

However, their preferred lenders in that country were Banco BPM and Intesa.