by Diana Mandia

(Reuters) – European scholarships finished falling sharply on Monday, investors fearing an aggressive commercial approach on the part of the United States while Donald Trump must reveal this week the extent of reciprocal customs duties against his partners.

In Paris, CAC 40 lost 1.58% to 7,790.71. In Frankfurt, the Dax fell 1.33% and in London, the FTSE 100 has 0.88%.

The Eurostoxx 50 index ended up on a loss of 1.52%, the FTSEURofirst 300 abandoned 1.43%and the Stoxx 600 fell by 1.47%.

After weeks of uncertainty and before the American president specifies Wednesday the contours of reciprocal customs duties, the markets had to integrate the possibility of a worse scenario, Donald Trump having mentioned on Sunday aboard the presidential plane the possibility of applying these measures to all countries and no longer to a limited group, as many were waiting for themselves.

On Saturday, the Washington Post reported that the American president had urged his main advisers to adopt more radical trade measures.

“It is obvious that he adopted a stronger and more severe tone than last week. Any optimism about a slightly softer approach seems to have been completely destroyed,” said Fiona Cincotta, main market analyst at City Index.

The American president is expected to receive recommendations on reciprocal customs duties on Tuesday and announce the details of their implementation on Wednesday, followed by measures on automotive imports the next day.

Faced with the commercial storm, investors have sold shares to rush into refuge assets such as sovereign bonds and Japanese yen, while pushing the price of gold to a new historic record.

In this context, the greater slowdown than expected of German inflation in March, auspicious for data from the euro zone expected on Tuesday, did not allow the markets to be comforted, even if this data should reassure the ECB on its rate reduction trajectory.

The Stoxx 600 index, however, closed this first quarter of 2025, however with a gain of 5.2%, largely exceeding the 5.7% drop in its American counterpart, the SPX, helped in particular by the German budget revival. In Frankfurt, the Dax took 11% in the first three months of 2025, and in Paris, the CAC 40 won 5.5%.

VALUES

The automotive sector, under the threat of American customs duties on April 3, lost 2.55% on Monday, while the actions of European mining and metallurgical companies, also penalized by the fears of aggressive American customs duties, made the basic resources of 3.1% back down.

The travel sector fell to 2.7% after the British airline Virgin Atlantic said that the United States travel demand for Great Britain has slowed down, strengthening fears that economic uncertainty has an impact on the sector.

IAG, Air France-KLM and Lufthansa lost between 4.3% and 6.6% on Monday.

In Paris, Maurel and Prom fell on Monday by more than 14.6% while the American Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) revoked its license to operate in Venezuela.

Associated British Foods, the Primark’s parent company, abandoned 1.5% after announcing the immediate resignation of the executive director of the ready-to-wear brand at low prices, Paul walks, following an allegation concerning his behavior towards a woman.

A Wall Street

The fears about customs duties also make the American clues suffer, where according to Daniela Hathorn, analyst at Capital.com, “the markets are preparing to face the worst”.

At the time of the fence in Europe, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Recuel of 0.48% and the Nasdaq Composite lost 1.38%. Dow Jones takes 0.25% after opening in the red.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are also preparing to know their strongest quarterly decrees for almost three years.

Changes

The yen gained ground on Monday against the dollar, investors fleeing risky assets due to American customs duties, while stabilizing towards the end of the session at 149.85 yen for a dollar.

The dollar earns 0.21% against a basket of reference currencies, while the euro loses 0.24% at 1.0801 dollars.

In the quarter, the euro, however, took 4.5% against the dollar, its largest leap since the third quarter of 2022, thanks to the budgetary reform in Germany.

RATE

The reference bond yields of the euro zone ended up on Monday after dropping throughout the session with uncertainties on customs duties.

The yield of the German Bund at ten years finished 2.731% and that of its counterpart at two years to 2.042%.

Yields of the US Treasury bonds are decreasing, the US trade policy reviving fears of recession and turning investors to the assets deemed safe.

The yield of ten -year -old Treasuries fell from 2.5 base points to 4.2301%.

OIL

Oil prices are growing while US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose customs duties on Russian oil buyers and warned Iran of a possible military action if he does not accept a nuclear program.

Brent took 1.45% at 74.70 dollars per barrel and American light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) advances from 2.62% to $ 71.18.

Metals

Gold, a refuge value, continued its increases on Monday to reach a new record at 3.128.06 dollars the ounce after Donald Trump said that customs duties would mainly apply to all countries.

To follow April 1:

(Some data may accuse a slight offset)

(Written by Diana Mandiá)

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