Europe open: Shares lower as Trump blacklists Huawei
European shares opened lower on Thursday as US President Donald Trump's decision to declare a national emergency and blacklist China telecoms giant Huawei weighed on sentiment.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.19% in early trading, with major bourses all opening softer. Markets had been up on Wednesday as Trump said he would suspend auto tariffs, but the decision on Huawei had impacted Asian trade overnight.
Huawei rivals Nokia and Ericsson were up on the news.
Nestle shares soared after the company entered exclusive talks to sell its skin health business in a deal worth CHF 10.2bn but later fell with the general market.
The proposed transaction with private equity firm EQT and a unit of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority was expected to close in the second half of 2019, pending regulatory approval, Nestle said in a statement.
Ubisoft fell after a trading update and ThyssenKrupp was up on reports that Kone was eyeing a bid for its euro elevators division.
Travel company Thomas Cook was plummeting as it said Brexit worries would impact hit profits this summer as losses widened to £1.5bn from £303m a year earlier as the firm warned “challenging” trading would put full-year numbers under pressure.
It now expected underlying earnings to fall over the second half as holiday firms cut prices to boost Brexit-hit demand and costs of fuel and hotels rise.
Elsewhere, Burberry under the cosh as it said underlying profit was unchanged last year as cost cuts offset a decline in revenue at the luxury clothing brand. Adjusted operating profit for the year to the end of March fell 6% to £438m but excluding currency movements profit was flat. Revenue at constant exchange rates fell 1% to £2.72bn and operating costs fell 1% to £1.42bn.