Europe midday: Markets dive on Sino-US worries, German sentiment improves
European stocks were sharply lower at noon on Tuesday as investors continued to focus on US-China trade negotiations ahead of a Sunday deadline for new tariffs on Chinese exports to kick-in.
At 1157 GMT, the Stoxx 600 was down by 1.1% at 402.13, as Germany's Dax dropped by 1.5% to 12,910.28 and the French CAC 40 fell by 0.9% to 5,785.38. Meanwhile, London's FTSE 100 was 1.1% lower at 7,155.39.
US Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Monday told Bloomberg that he did not expect fresh duties on Chinese exports to come into effect this weekend, while speaking at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council meeting, White House adviser Jared Kushner said talks were "heading in a good direction".
IG analyst Joshua Mahony said: "With the 15 December deadline now just 5 days away, the relative quiet from the White House signals a growing likeliness that the trade war drags stocks lower yet again.
"While many believe that we will see that deadline delayed, the default option remains another ramp-up in tariffs, and thus markets had to take it into account soon enough."
In Germany, a closely-followed index of economic expectations, from the ZEW Center for European Economics Research, beat analysts' expectations with a rise to 10.7 from -2.1 in November .
Pantheon Macroeconomics analyst Claus Vistesen said: "Another solid headline from the EZ investor sentiment data. The increase in the expectations gauge takes it to the highest level since the start of 2018 when the recent prolonged slowdown began.
"The current situation index improved too, to -19.9 from -24.7, and the key story here is that the expectations index is now positive and rising, even as the current situation index remains depressed."
Among individual stocks, Colruyt racked up solid gains after its interim results showed improvements to earnings and margins, though the Belgian retailer said it expected the market to remain competitive into the new calendar year.
French drugmaker Sanofi was also in the green after it announced a strategy to halt its research into diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in favour of increasing its focus on treatments such as its eczema medicine Dupixent.
Atlantia climbed after a report from newspaper Milano Finanza suggested that the Italian infrastructure company could be in line for investment from state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti.
French retail group Casino Group rose as it announced new plans to pay off debts of around €3.3bn.
Valeo sank as the car parts supplier's chief executive warned that a slump in demand from China was likely to translate into further redundancies in Europe.