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Investing.com – European stock markets traded lower Friday, with travel stocks weighing after Britain added more countries to its quarantine list while Chinese data suggested a slow economic recovery.
At 4 AM ET (0800 GMT), the DAX in Germany traded 1% lower, the CAC 40 in France fell 1.5% and the U.K.’s FTSE index was down 1.6%.
The United Kingdom decided to impose a 14-day quarantine on arrivals from France, beginning Saturday, and added the Netherlands, Malta and three other countries to the list.
This weighed heavily on the travel industry, with UK-based airlines and tour operators such as Tui (DE:TUIGn), EasyJet (LON:EZJ), and British Airways-owner IAG (LON:ICAG) all falling heavily.
Elsewhere, Daimler stock (DE:DAIGn) dropped 1.1% after the maker of Mercedes-Benz cars said it was going to take a hit of nearly $3 billion to settle civil investigations by U.S. regulators and lawsuits from the long-running probe into software to cheat diesel emissions tests.
Earlier Friday, data showed China’s economic recovery continued in July, although not as robustly as many had hoped from the globe’s second largest economy and one of the most important growth drivers.
Industrial output rose 4.8% in July from a year earlier, below the median estimate of 5.2%, while retail sales were still in negative territory after the year-on-year decline slowed to 1.1%.
The euro zone’s preliminary GDP numbers for the second quarter are due late in Friday’s session, and the market consensus suggests a drop of 12% compared with the first quarter and 15% compared with the same quarter last year.
Also of interest will be the further course of negotiations between the Trump administration and the Democrats in Congress over the size and make up of the next coronavirus relief package. The Senate formally went into recess on Thursday but could return for a vote on any deal, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said.
Oil prices fell Friday, despite signs the energy demand recovery in the U.S. is gaining traction, although both the International Energy Agency and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries revised their global demand forecasts down earlier this week.
The OPEC+ producer bloc, which also includes Russia, will meet next week in the form of its Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee to discuss production levels.
U.S. crude futures traded 0.7% lower at $41.96 a barrel, while the international benchmark Brent contract fell 0.6% to $44.67.
Elsewhere, gold futures fell 0.7% to $1,956.60/oz, continuing to trade in an elevated range just below the $2,000 level. EUR/USD traded 0.1% lower at 1.1806.
