European Stocks Close Higher Again On Easing Tariff Concerns

(RTTNews) - European stocks closed higher on Tuesday, extending recent gains, as investors indulged in some strong buying after U.S. President Donald Trump signaled temporary exemption of tariffs on auto and auto parts imports.

Trump said he is considering to temporarily halt the auto tariffs he had imposed earlier on the sector, in order to give time to car manufacturers to adjust their supply chains.

"I'm looking at something to help some of the car companies with it," Trump said while briefing the media at the Oval Office about auto tariffs. The U.S. President said that carmakers required time to reallocate their production from Canada, Mexico and other places, adding "And they need a little bit of time because they're going to make them here, but they need a little bit of time. So I'm talking about things like that."

The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 1.63%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained 1.41%, Germany's DAX surged 1.43% and France's CAC 40 ended 0.86% up. Switzerland's SMI settled 0.96% up.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden closed with strong gains.

Denmark and Poland ended modestly higher, while Russia and Turkiye closed weak.

In the UK market, 3i Group climbed about 5.8%. St. James's Place, Intermediate Capital Group, Segro, Fresnillo, Standard Chartered, M&G, Unite Group, Kingfisher, Persimmon, Barclays, Intertek Group, Lloyds Banking Group, Rolls-Royce Holdings and BAE Systems closed higher by 3 to 4.2%.

Diageo ended 3.46% down. Glencore and Pershing Square Holdings closed lower by 1.6% and 1.1%, respectively. Rentokil Initial and AstraZeneca ended modestly lower.

In the German market, Rheinmetall, Heidelberg Materials, Vonovia, Commerzbank, Henkel, Continental, Deutsche Bank, E.ON, Siemens Energy, Fresenius, RWE, BMW, Sartorius, Fresenius Medical Care, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Hannover Rueck, Munich RE, Zalando and Infineon gained 1.5 to 4.3%.

Adidas ended down by about 2% and Porsche closed 1% down. Siemens ended modestly lower.

In the French market, Saing Gobain, Stellantis, Societe Generale, Publicis Groupe, Schenider Electric, Unibail Rodamco, Veolia, BNP Paribas, Thales, Bouygues and Michelin gained 2.4 to 6%.

LVMH tumbled nearly 8% after the company reported a 3% drop in first-quarter sales, as against expectations for a 2% increase. The company behind high-end labels including fashion houses Louis Vuitton and Dior, jewellery brand Bulgari and Hennessy cognac, reported sales for the three months to the end of March of 20.3 billion euros ($23.08 billion).

Kering closed down by over 5%. Pernod Ricard, L'Oreal and Carrefour also ended notably lower.

On the economic front, the UK jobless rate remained unchanged in the three months to February, the Office for National Statistics said in its report.

The unemployment rate was 4.4% in the December to February period, unchanged from the preceding period and matched economists' expectations.

Meanwhile, annual growth in employees' earnings excluding bonuses was 5.9% in December to February. This was slightly slower than the expected growth of 6%.

UK retail sales increased in March as improving weather boosted house and garden related purchases, the British Retail Consortium reported today. Retail sales grew 1.1% on a yearly basis in March. However, this was slower than the 3.5% growth in the same period last year.

Data from Destatis showed Germany's wholesale price inflation weakened in March after accelerating in the previous month. Wholesale prices grew 1.3% year-on-year in March, following an increase of 1.6% in February, the data said.

On a monthly basis, wholesale prices dropped for the first time in six months in March, easing by 0.2%, in contrast to the 0.6% increase in February.

The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany sank to -14 in April 2025, the lowest since July 2023, from 51.6 in March, and much worse than forecasts of 9.5. It marks the steepest drop in expectations since the onset of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Meanwhile, the assessment of the current economic situation improved slightly to -81.2 from -87.6.

Data from Eurostat showed the industrial output in Eurozone grew at a faster pace in February driven by the rebound in production of capital and non-durable consumer goods.

Industrial output climbed 1.1% month-on-month in February, which was faster than the 0.6% growth logged in January and also better than economists' forecast of 0.1%.

On a yearly basis, industrial production advanced unexpectedly by 1.2%, in contrast to the 0.5% decline a month ago. Output was forecast to contract 0.8%.

Industrial production in the EU27 expanded 1% month-on-month in February, taking the annual growth to 0.6%.