By European stocks were barely moving on Black Friday, as ongoing political turmoil in France and the threat of U.S. tariffs sapped investors’ enthusiasm.
The continent’s flagship Stoxx 600 index slipped 0.1% in morning trading. London’s FTSE 100 was down by the same amount, while Paris’s CAC 40 and Frankfurt’s Dax traded flat.
France’s government is on the verge of collapsing as it struggles to pass a budget that the market hoped would shore up the country’s public finances. Its opponents are threatening to bring a no-confidence vote as early as next week, which Prime Minister Michel Barnier has said would spark “serious turbulence on the financial markets.”
