European stock markets ended sharply lower on Thursday amid fears of retaliation from China after the European Commission announced new tariffs on electric vehicles imported from China.

In Paris, the CAC 40 ended down 1.99% at 7,708.02 points, its biggest single-session decline in 11 months. The British Footsie gave up 0.63% and the German Dax shed 1.97%.

The EuroStoxx 50 index was down 1.97%, the FTSEurofirst 300

by 1.21% and the Stoxx 600 by 1.31%.

Following the European Union's decision to impose tariffs of up to 38% on Chinese electric car imports, Beijing said on Thursday it hoped the EU would reconsider its decision and stop heading in "the wrong direction", according to the China News Agency.

"The risk is that China will now take measures that would particularly affect German equipment manufacturers exporting to China", writes Daniel Schwarz, analyst at Stifel.

On the pan-European Stoxx 600, the European automotive index shed 2.3%, the biggest sectoral decline, while Volkswagen (-3.47%), BMW (-2.22%), Renault (-2.26%) and Stellantis (-2.69%) finished in the red. The Franco-Italian-American group said it was counting on its new Chinese strategy to weather the storm of tariffs.

ON WALL STREET

At the time of closing in Europe, the Dow Jones was down by 0.68% and the Standard & Poor's 500 by 0.12%. The Nasdaq , buoyed by the semiconductor sector (+1.09%) and the new technologies sector

(+1.07%), gained 0.12% after setting a session record at 17,741.79 points.

The session was volatile in New York, with investors digesting announcements from the US Federal Reserve, which on Wednesday evening said it expected only one more rate cut this year, while noting "further modest progress" towards the 2% inflation target, a formulation reflecting an improvement on the May 1 statement.

The publication of US producer price index (PPI) statistics, showing a contraction of 0.2% month-on-month and a slowdown of 2.2% year-on-year in May, buoyed the indices for a time before their effect faded.

VALUES IN EUROPE

Atos finished down 0.41% in a volatile session as the group said on Thursday that it had entered into discussions on the financial restructuring proposal submitted by the OnePoint consortium.

Lufthansa , placed on negative watch by JPMorgan, fell 5.47% after the intermediary warned of a second-quarter price cut on long-haul flights.

BT gained 4.32% after Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim took a 3.16% stake in the British telecom group.

Wise plunged 11.5%, to the bottom of the Stoxx 600, as the British money transfer group announced that it expected slower sales growth for its new fiscal year.



CURRENCIES

The dollar, which plunged 1% on Wednesday following the publication of US consumer price figures, regained some of the ground lost the previous day on Thursday. The greenback gained 0.45% against a basket of reference currencies.

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The euro lost 0.56% to $1.0746. The European currency has been facing intense volatility since the start of the week, fueled by political uncertainty in France with early parliamentary elections scheduled for June 30 and July 7.

RATES

The yield on ten-year US Treasuries fell by 4.9 basis points (bps) to 4.2461%, in response to the slowdown in producer prices in May and the rise in weekly US jobless claims.

The ten-year German Bund yield ended down 4.5 basis points at 2.473%, while the two-year yield gave up 7.1 basis points at 2.872%.

OIL

The oil market is in the red under pressure from rising US crude supplies and the prospect of a delay in the Fed's rate cut.

Brent crude declined by 0.29% to $82.36 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) gave up 0.37% to $78.21.

FOLLOWING FRIDAY: (Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Sophie Louet)