Europe open: Stocks skid lower as White House pushes ahead with steel tariffs

Stocks are trading sharply lower following US president Donald Trump's pledge to place tarriffs on imports of steel and aluminum, with a sharp gain for the Japanese yen adding to the volatile mix.

As of 1000 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was down by 1.30% or 4.89 points to 369.67, alongside a fall of 2.04% or 248.10 points to 11,944.57 and a retreat of 1.88% or 421.37 points to 22,027.01 on the FTSE Mibtel.

Commenting on those controversial proposals from the White House, Michael Hewson at CMC Markets UK said: "25% tariffs on steel and a 10% tariff on aluminium imports has raised concerns of countermeasures from China and the EU in response and is likely to see European stocks, which had already been struggling ahead of this weekend’s Italian election and important SPD vote in Germany, follow stocks in Asia and open sharply lower over concerns that costs will rise and profit margins will get hit sharply."

Meantime, in the background, dollar/yen was trading 0.49% lower to 105.67 after Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda spoke of the convenience of exiting the monetary authority's quantitative easing plans if consumer prices in the country hit the BoJ's inflation target.

"The DAX appears to be leading the declines in European markets this week, with car makers already under pressure as a result of this week’s German court decision regarding bans on diesel cars, last night’s news on tariffs could well give them another kick lower," Hewson added.

Indeed, the Stoxx 600 gauge of Autombiles & Parts was getting beaten down by 2.44% to 604.33.

On the macroeconomic front, according to Germany's Ministry of Finance, retail sales volumes in the country shrank by 0.7% month-on-month in February (consensus: 0.9%).

In parallel, Eurostat reported that producer prices within the single currency bloc were ahead by 0.4% month-on-month in January, as expected.

For later in the day, investors were waiting on the release of the final reading on the University of Michigan's consumer confidence index for the month of February.

Back in the corporate patch, ratings agency Fitch waded into the debate on diesel vehicles, saying that German court rulings allowing cities to restrict the use of diesel vehicles paved the way for diesel car bans.

Further South, Societe Generale announced a deal with three of its unions to shed 2,135 jobs as it restructured its French retail banking network.