European stocks close sharply lower amid global market rout

ISTANBUL

European stock markets closed Monday with huge losses as investors’ worries escalated amid a global equity market meltdown that began last week in response to the reciprocal tariffs of the President Donald Trump.

International stock markets, commodity prices, and digital assets on Monday continued to be shaken by the uncertainties over the tariffs.

Last Wednesday, Trump announced the imposition of sweeping reciprocal tariffs on over 180 countries, ranging from 10% to 50%.

Trump on Sunday described tariffs as “medicine” for addressing the country’s trade deficit with many countries.

“I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One, saying he was not intentionally trying to engineer a market selloff with his policies.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday pledged that any trade deal with the US will be signed only if it is in the UK’s “national interest,” as he warned about the significant challenges posed by Trump’s tariffs.

Starmer said that the new import taxes, which include a 10% “baseline” import duty and a 25% tariff on British cars, would pose a “huge challenge for our future.”

Earlier today, Trump threatened to impose additional 50% tariffs on China on top of the imposed 34% reciprocal tariffs announced last week.

The US president said that if China does not cancel its 34% increase in tariffs by April 8, he would impose 50% additional tariffs on the country.

The additional tariff rate will take effect on Wednesday, the president said.

On the corporate side, Audi, the luxury car brand of automaker Volkswagen Group, reportedly suspended vehicle deliveries to the US due to additional tariffs imposed by Trump.

UK-based automotive company Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) announced that it suspended its exports to the country throughout April due to Trump’s 25% tariff on all cars not manufactured in the US.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 fell 4.5%, or 22.32 points, to 474.01.

Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 4.38% — 352.9 points — to close at 7,702.08, while Germany’s DAX 40 index fell 4.13%, or 852.1 points, to 19,789.62.

France’s CAC 40 also was off 4.78%, or 347.83 points, to 6,927.12, and Italy’s FTSE MIB 30 index dove 5.18% to 32,853.98 in a 1,795.24-point dip.

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