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European stocks erase gains, Stellantis drops 4%
European markets closed lower on Friday after a rocky start to 2025 for stocks around the world.
The Stoxx 600 closed down 0.49%, giving up most of Thursday’s gains as sectors retreated, but was up 0.7% during a week in which trading activity was thin as traders returned from the New Year break.
France’s CAC 40 fell 1.51%, Germany’s DAX closed down 0.59% and Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 0.44%.
Automotive stocks were among the worst performers, down 1.79%, while travel and leisure stocks fell 1.62%. Among the few sectors to rise were financial services, which last rose 0.4%.
Oil and gas stocks also rose more than 1 percent, led by gains in Finnish refiner Neste, which rose 4.8 percent on reports of a series of new airline fuel contracts.
At the other end of the Stoxx 600, Stellantis fell about 3.8 percent after the Italian carmaker reported a 45.7 percent drop in car production in 2024, its lowest since 1956, according to Reuters.
On the data front, Turkey’s consumer price index fell to 44.38 percent year-on-year in December, down from 47.09 percent in November. Economists had expected inflation to fall to 45.2 percent, according to a Reuters poll.
Poland’s flash CPI reading was a 4.8 percent year-on-year increase in December, also below Reuters’ forecast.
