Illustration of food items placed on the belt of a cash register in a Leclerc supermarket in Valence, France, April 4, 2025. <\/p>\n
Nicolas Guyonnet | Afp | Getty Images<\/p>\n
LONDON \u2014 European stocks opened lower on Tuesday as tariff uncertainty causes global markets to waver.<\/p>\n
The U.K.’s FTSE<\/a> index is in the red by 0.4%, Germany’s DAX<\/a> is down by 0.88%, Italy’s FTSE MIB<\/a> is lower by 0.46% while France’s CAC 40<\/a> was trading flat. Meanwhile, the Stoxx Europe 600<\/a> index was lower by 0.6%<\/p>\n In corporate news, shares of private markets investor Partners Group<\/a> have shot up to the top of the Stoxx 600 index after the company reported first-half profits of 578 million Swiss franc ($720 million) versus analysts consensus of 570 million Swiss franc, due to “due to higher performance fees.”<\/p>\n At the other end, Frankfurt-listed Fresenius Medical Care was at the bottom of the Stoxx 600 by 5.5% after analysts at UBS downgraded the stock to a “Sell” rating.<\/p>\n In Italy’s tumultuous banking consolidation story, state-backed Monte dei Paschi<\/a> has bolstered its bid for domestic peer Mediobanca<\/a> with a cash component of 0.90 euros ($1.05) per share, sweetening an original offer targeting 2.533 of its own stock for each Mediobanca share tendered.<\/p>\n This now represents a 11.4% premium against the close price of Mediobanca’s stock on Jan. 23. The Italian lender has been resisting Monte dei Paschi’s interest since the start of the year, rejecting the initial all-stock offer that runs to Sept. 8.<\/p>\n But last month’s failure to gain shareholder support for Mediobanca’s proposed purchase of Banca Generali<\/a> \u2013 widely seen as a defensive play \u2013 has prompted some analysts to reassess the bank’s odds of avoiding a takeover down the line.<\/p>\n Regional bourses kicked off the new trading month higher on Monday, with the defense and health-care sectors receiving a boost from corporate news.<\/p>\n The mood has changed overnight, however, with Asia-Pacific markets<\/a> trading mixed and U.S. stock futures<\/a> little changed on Monday night, with investors weighing the trade landscape after a U.S. federal appeals court\u00a0ruled that most<\/a>\u00a0of President\u00a0Donald Trump’s\u00a0global tariffs\u00a0are illegal.<\/p>\n The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit determined in a 7-4 ruling that only Congress has the authority to apply sweeping levies. Trump called the decision “Highly Partisan” and has said that he will appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n