Europe midday: Amid trade frictions, stocks dip ahead of US jobs data
Stockmarkets across the Continent are paring earlier initial gains after Beijing said it had begun retaliating for Washington's decision overnight to impose tariffs on its exports with its own levies and ahead of the US jobs report for June.
Chinese officials had initially kept mum, prompting some analysts to wonder aloud if the Asian giant might be doing so on purpose, in order to signal some restraint.
That line of reasoning was soon cut short by the foreign ministry in Beijing, with spokesman Lu Kang announcing shortly after the London open that countermeasures had gone into effect after the American measures had come into force.
In reaction, some of the sectors which had recently been performing best, such as Autos&Parts and Banks fell back, with some of the more defensive areas of the market such as personal household goods taking the lead.
As of 1300 BST, the benchmark Stoxx 600 had slipped into the red by 0.18% or 0.67 points to trade at 380.92, while the German Dax was off by 0.05% or 5.72 points to 12,461.73.
The Cac-40 on the other hand was dipping by 0.10% or 5.24 points to 5,361.24.
Within the Stoxx 600, the Auto&Parts subindex was down by 0.75% to 562.66 and that for banks by 0.51% at 161.72.
Euro/dollar meanwhile was a little higher, rising 0.27% to 1.17227.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics was scheduled to release its June non-farm payrolls report at 1330 BST.
Earlier, China's commerce ministry had issued a statement, saying: "The United States has violated World Trade Organization rules and ignited the largest trade war in economic history.
"Such tariffs are typical trade bullying, and this action threatens global supply chains and value chains, stalls the global economic recovery, triggers global market turmoil, and will hurt more innocent multinational companies, enterprises and consumers."
However, the Commerce ministry did not specify what amount of goods would be hit by Beijing's tariffs.
Interestingly too, analysts at Oxford Economics pointed out that: "Besides criticising the US move and vowing to retaliate, today’s statement by China's Ministry of Commerce also indicated restraints and continued commitment to reform and globalisation."
As expected, German industrial production bounded ahead in May, the Federal Office of Statistics said, increasing at a month-on-month clip of 2.6%, dwarfing estimates for a rise of 0.3%.
However, French data released soon afterwards revealed the country's trade deficit widened from the -€5.2bn seen in April to -€6.0bn for May (consensus: -€5.2bn). Exports were especially weak, falling by 2.0% pace versus the prior month.
On the corporate front, there were reports that JP Morgan and ICBC may be weighing taking a stake in Deutsche Bank.
Stock in Airbus was bouncing back as well, with shares in the jet-maker adding 0.97% to €98.69.