European shares fell on Tuesday, dragged down by heavyweight Novo Nordisk, while US President Donald Trump’s fresh attacks on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell added more strain to markets already shaken by trade war worries.
The Danish drugmaker dropped 7.9% after trial results from US rival Eli Lilly’s experimental pill for weight loss and blood sugar showed it worked just as well as Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster drug Ozempic.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.6% as of 0822 GMT, while other regional indexes were mixed.
Concerns over US tariffs also kept investors on the edge as they returned from the Easter weekend.
The week began on a dour note after Trump repeated his criticism of Powell to pressure the central bank into cutting interest rates quickly.
However, losses in European shares have been relatively restrained, when compared to the United States.
“Capital has flowed out of US equity funds into Asian and European equity funds. So, relatively speaking, the European market is holding up firmer than the US market,” said Axel Rudolph, senior technical analyst at IG Group.
“But, of course, they’re still going to be affected by this negative sentiment, which is global, so I’m not surprised that we opened lower earlier this morning.”
The outlook for European corporate earnings has worsened as the uncertainty caused by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs persists, with analysts expecting companies to report a 3% drop in first-quarter profit, LSEG IBES forecasts showed a week ago.
This is a deeper decline than the 2.2% drop analysts expected at the start of the month.
European shares clock marginal losses after ECB eases rates
“We’ve seen a lot of companies already come on with earnings saying if the tariffs get sorted out pretty soon, then we give this sort of guidance.
On the other hand, if the tariffs stay in place as they are, we give this sort of guidance.
This great uncertainty is not positive for earnings,“ Rudolph added. Investors will now be on the lookout for the euro zone consumer confidence report due at 1400 GMT, followed by flash PMI surveys out of France, Germany and the eurozone on Wednesday.
Biotage shares surged 56.2% after the Swedish biotechnology firm said KKR made a cash offer for the firm, valuing it at around 11.6 billion Swedish crowns ($1.22 billion).
Shares in Swiss insurers Helvetia and Baloise rose 3.8% and 3.6% respectively after they said they plan to merge, creating Switzerland’s second-largest insurance group with a combined market share of about 20%.
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