European stocks surge amid hopes US will scale back tariff plans

London’s stock market was outperformed by international peers on Monday, which were buoyed amid reports that US President-elect Donald Trump was considering limiting his tariff plans.

The FTSE 100 closed 25.68 points higher, or 0.31%, at 8,249.66 following a late-afternoon boost to trading.

Meanwhile, France’s top index, the Cac 40, soared nearly 300 points on Monday to close 2.24% higher, and Germany’s Dax climbed 1.56%.

Reports earlier on Monday suggested that Mr Trump was scaling back his plans for higher tariffs on all US imports and instead considering a more targeted approach.

It helped spark a sell-off of the US dollar which weakened against the pound on Monday.

However, Mr Trump took to social media to refute the reports which he described as “fake news”.

Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst for IG, said: “Stocks have made solid gains around the world today on hopes that the incoming US administration will look to take a more targeted approach on tariffs than previously feared.

“Today’s bounce is a reminder to investors that they are now living in a Trump-dominated world.

“Once the new president is installed on January 20, we can expect a lot more days like today.”

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 shot up by 1.3%, and Dow Jones was 0.9% higher by the time European markets closed.

The pound was up about 0.8% against the US dollar, at 1.2525, and was more or less flat against the euro at 1.205.

In company news, Unilever shares dropped to their lowest for almost six months after the consumer goods giant was knocked by an analyst downgrade.

RBC Capital Markets downgraded the Ben & Jerry’s owner to an “underperform” rating as it warned the firm “hasn’t the wherewithal” to grow sales volumes as much as it wants.

Shares in the company were down 2.8% for the day as a result.

Rolls-Royce shares were also lower after being downgraded by analysts at Citigroup, which said it believed its share price was now “approaching fair value” following a “strong recovery from the depths of Covid”.

Shares in the engineering giant closed 2.6% lower on Monday.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were JD Sports, up 3.78p to 97.94p, Intermediate Capital, up 78p to 2,132p, Antofagasta, up 51.5p to 1,642.5p, Lloyds, up 1.4p to 55.76p, and Entain, up 16.4p to 692.8p.

The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were WPP, down 23.6p to 790.4p, Rolls-Royce, down 15p to 570p, Unilever, down 113p to 4,448p, Marks & Spencer, down 7.7p to 382.8p, and Rightmove, down 8p to 640p.