(Alliance News) – Stock prices in Europe moved lower in early dealings on Monday, with enthusiasm at the start of the week tempered by tariff uncertainty, as US President Donald Trump hit out at a Supreme Court ruling and announced new trade curbs.
The FTSE 100 index was down 17.21 points, 0.2%, at 10,669.68. The FTSE 250 was down 88.32 points, 0.4%, at 23,663.24, and the AIM all-share was up 3.01 points, 0.4%, at 818.12.
The Cboe UK 100 was down 0.1% at 1,062.86, the Cboe UK 250 shed 0.4% at 20,964.68, and the Cboe small companies gave back 0.1% at 18,599.91.
The CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.2%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt shed 0.7%.
Sterling rose to USD1.3513 on Monday, from USD1.3492 at the time of the London equities close on Friday. The euro climbed to USD1.1815 from USD1.1780. Against the yen, the dollar fell to JPY154.66 from JPY154.95.
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury was unchanged at 4.09%, while the 30-year yield was steady at 4.73%.
In Asia, financial markets in Tokyo and Shanghai were closed on Monday. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index shot up 2.5%. Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200, however, fell 0.6%.
In New York on Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5%, the S&P 500 added 0.7% and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.9%.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday said he is raising the global tariff he wants to impose to 15%, up from the 10% he had announced a day earlier.
Trump said in a social media post that he was making the decision “Based on a thorough, detailed, and complete review of the ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American decision on Tariffs issued yesterday,” by the US Supreme Court.
After the court ruled he did not have the emergency power to impose many sweeping tariffs, Trump signed an executive order on Friday night that enabled him to bypass Congress and impose a 10% tax on imports from around the world.
The catch is that those tariffs would be limited to just 150 days, unless they are extended legislatively.
Analysts at Deutsche Bank commented: “This leaves a substantial amount of uncertainty, even if markets initially welcomed the perceived clarity of ‘only’ a 10% tariff on Friday. Looking ahead, the reality is that the 15% tariff imposed under Section 122 can only remain in place for 150 days (late July), after which Congressional approval would be required to extend it. Section 122 was designed as a temporary tool to address emergency balance of payments issues and would likely face further legal challenges if rolled over repeatedly.
“That raises a key political question: will a small number of Republicans in either chamber be reluctant to support what could be framed as an extension of a consumer tax hike just three and a half months before the mid term elections? At that point, the administration faces a binary choice: try to secure an extension or allow the tariff to lapse. The latter appears the more likely outcome.”
High-level talks are ongoing after Trump’s announcement of 15% global tariffs and the government wants “the best possible deal” for UK firms, a UK Cabinet minister has said.
UK Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson admitted businesses face “uncertainty” after the move but insisted Britain expects its “preferential” trade arrangements with the US to continue.
A barrel of Brent fell to USD70.87 early Monday, from USD71.33 late Friday. Gold rose to USD5,130.96 an ounce from USD5,066.90.
Keeping a lid on the FTSE 100 in early trade, some of its largest constituents were in the red. AstraZeneca lost 0.8%, GSK gave back 0.9% and Rolls-Royce declined 1.2%. BAE Systems, meanwhile, was 1.6% lower.
Rio Tinto fell 0.5% after Goldman Sachs cut the miner to ‘neutral’.
Fresnillo and Endeavour Mining each added 3.0%, supported by the higher gold price.
JD Sports rose 4.4% after announcing the launch of a GBP200 million share buyback.
Mony Group was the best FTSE 250 performer, adding 3.9% after reporting record annual earnings and announcing a GBP25 million buyback.
Johnson Matthey slumped 15%. The London-based speciality chemicals and sustainable technologies company said the price of the sale of its Catalyst Technologies business to Honeywell has been reduced amid a “challenging market environment”.
The unit will now be sold to Honeywell for an enterprise value of GBP1.33 billion, cut from GBP1.80 billion. As a result, Johnson Matthey now expects to return around GBP1.00 billion to shareholders, down from the previously reported GBP1.4 billion.
Also on the decline, cybersecurity services provider NCC fell 4.7%. Swissquote analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya said cybersecurity firms got caught up in the “AI anxiety trade” at the end of last week.
“On Friday, cybersecurity software companies took a dip in the chilly water after Anthropic introduced a new tool that ‘scans codebases for security vulnerabilities and suggests targeted software patches for human review’. CrowdStrike and Cloudflare fell 8%, while the Global X Cybersecurity ETF fell nearly 5% and closed at its lowest level since November 2023,” Ozkardeskaya added.
Victoria shares fell 13%. The Worcester-based flooring company said it expects annual profit below consensus, after enduring tough trading conditions in the first half of last month. For the financial year that concludes in late March, Victoria expects to report post-IFRS16 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of around GBP95 million, compared to consensus of GBP110.7 million. In financial 2025, its underlying Ebitda, on a post-IFRS16 basis, was GBP113.7 million.
Victoria said trading in the first half of January was hurt by “weak consumer confidence and weak footfall at our end customers due to geopolitical events across our key markets”.
“Whilst recent weeks have shown improvements in trading, the board now expects Q4 revenue to be below its previous expectations and approximately 5% below FY25,” it added.
By Eric Cunha, Alliance News news editor
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