European stock markets closed lower on Thursday, following U.S. President Donald Trump's stronger-than-expected trade tariff announcement.
The regional Stoxx 600 index ended down about 2.7%. Big retail names with global supply chains suffered, with German sportswear retailer Adidas down 11%.
Shipping giant Maersk, widely seen as a barometer of global trade, fell 9.5%.
The Stoxx Autos index fell 3.9% as Trump's 25% tariffs on imported vehicles to the U.S. came into effect and added to existing duties on steel and aluminum.
Other big losers included banks, down 5.6%, and technology, down 4.5%. Utilities, traditionally a defensive play in times of market turmoil, rose nearly 3%.
Trump on Wednesday signed off on an aggressive and broad-based "reciprocal tariff" policy, with his plan to set a base tariff of 10% across the board.
The president announced a series of "reciprocal tariffs" on more than 180 countries and territories, including 20% tariffs on goods imported from the EU and 10% on goods from the UK.
The UK's FTSE 100 fell 1.6%, with France's CAC 40 and Germany's DAX posting deeper losses of 3.3% and 3.1%, respectively.
The US's biggest economic rival, China, was hit with new tariffs of 34% that would add to the current 20% tariffs on US imports from China, bringing the total effective tariff to 54%. (Newsmaker23)
Source: CNBC
