(Bloomberg) -- European stocks fell, tracking declines in American peers, as investors assessed worse-than-forecast data in the world's biggest economy and U.S. President Donald Trump's latest moves on trade and immigration.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index lost 0.7 percent, closing at its lowest level of the year as banks and chemical companies led declines. The benchmark extended a drop in afternoon trading after data on consumer confidence and Chicago area manufacturing missed estimates.
Early gains in January gave way to losses as the month drew to a close, with the benchmark closing 0.4 percent lower for the period after December's biggest advance in more than a year. Winners in the surge spurred by Trump's election win turned losers this week as some of his early decisions in office unnerved investors.
- “We may only be 11 days into the first 100 days of the new Trump administration but one thing is becoming more apparent and that is that markets are going to be continually tested in the near term by the words and actions of President Trump,” Deutsche Bank analyst Craig Nicol wrote in a note.
- Credit Suisse equity strategists including Andrew Garthwaite and Marina Pronina wrote in a note that political risk in Europe is overstated for 2017, raising their year-end target for the Euro Stoxx 50 to 3,450 from 3,300.
- Among shares active on corporate news on Tuesday, Actelion Ltd. slumped 5.6 percent after France's medical regulator said some patients in the country had died after taking its Uptravi lung medicine.
- Givaudan SA, the world's largest maker of flavors and fragrances, dropped the most since November to lead chemical stocks lower after its quarterly profit missed estimates.
- Despite this week's stock losses, European banks are enjoying positive earnings revisions after six years of downgrades, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The sector is expected to see a 22 percent jump in operating income this year, the strongest growth since 2010.
To contact the reporters on this story: Blaise Robinson in Paris at brobinson58@bloomberg.net, Elena Popina in New York at epopina@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Celeste Perri at cperri@bloomberg.net, Todd White, Namitha Jagadeesh
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