CAC 40 Pares Early Gains, Down More Than 1%

(RTTNews) - After a positive start, French stocks have turned weak on Friday as rising trade tensions between the U.S. and China outweigh President Donald Trump's announcement of a 90-day pause in tariff hikes on about 60 trade partners of the U.S. on Tuesday.

After the U.S. said that Chinese goods will be taxed at 145% as against the earlier proposed levy of 125%, China's finance ministry has revealed that it will raise tariffs on U.S. goods to 125% from 84%, effective Saturday (April 12). The spat between the two major economies has raised concerns of a prolonged trade war that could hurt several major economies.

French President Emmanuel Macron said today that the U.S. tariff suspension offers only a "fragile" pause in tensions — but a vital opportunity for negotiations.

The benchmark CAC 40 was down 72.81 points or 1.02% at 7,053.21 a few minutes ago. The index had climbed to 7,204.60 earlier in the session, gaining nearly 80 points.

Stellantis is declining 5.4% after the auto giant reported that its first-quarter shipments fell 9% compared to last year. The company said that weak consolidated shipments in the first quarter primarily reflect lower North American production and lower volume in Enlarged Europe.

Safran is down 4.6% and Airbus is lower by about 4.2%. Dassault Systemes, Unibail Rodamco and Schneider Electric are down 2.6 to 4%.

LVMH, Saint Gobain, TotalEnergies, Accor, Renault, Pernod Ricard, Hermes International, Bureau Veritas, Societe Generale, Publicis Groupe, Thales, Legrand, Edenred, Air Liquide, Teleperformance, ArcelorMittal and Capgemini are down 1 to 2%.

Orange is gaining about 1.5%. STMicroElectronics, Danone, Engie and Carrefour are up 0.6 to 1%.