European equities ended Friday’s session lower, as trade developments and economic data remained in focus. The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed down 0.04%, with sectors trading in mixed territory.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who completed a state visit to the U.K. this week, held a much-anticipated phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday. The call followed the announcement of a framework deal on TikTok’s U.S. operations reached by U.S. and Chinese negotiators in Madrid earlier this week.
Regional shares ended the day in the red, leaving the Stoxx 600 on track to finish the week largely unchanged.
European individual movers
Shares of Maersk, a bellwether for global trade, dropped 5.9%, while logistics firm Kuehne + Nagel fell 9.1%, ahead of the Trump-Xi call. The declines came as Canada and Mexico announced plans to deepen bilateral trade ties, amid ongoing U.S. tariffs on their goods.
In the U.K., hopes for a reduction in steel and aluminum tariffs were dashed after Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s meeting with Trump on Thursday yielded no breakthrough.
German tyre manufacturer Continental fell 2.49% following the spin-off of its car parts division, Aumovio, on Thursday.
U.K. government borrowing data
Friday’s U.K. data showed a sharp rise in public sector borrowing, which increased by £11.4 billion ($15.4 billion) more than projected between April and August. This marked the second-highest borrowing for that period since records began in 1993, surpassed only by the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic figures.
The data pushed up U.K. government borrowing costs, with yields on 20- and 30-year gilts rising 4 and 5 basis points, respectively.
Global market context
In Asia, stocks traded mostly higher after the Bank of Japan left interest rates unchanged. U.S. stock futures were flat following fresh all-time highs on Wall Street on Thursday.
Correction: Continental shares fell on Friday. An earlier version of this story incorrectly cited a share price rise based on the data available at the time of publication.
