Europe’s stock markets are edging higher Friday, on course for what would be their sixth weekly gain in the last seven weeks, but you wouldn’t guess it from the news flow.
At 05:00 AM ET (1000 GMT), the benchmark Euro Stoxx 50 was up 0.4% at 3,195.45. National markets were led higher by France’s CAC 40, which gained 0.7%, while Germany’s Dax lagged with a 0.1% decline.
Investors pulled $6 billion from European stocks in the week to Wednesday, various media reported Friday citing data from EPFR. That’s the highest weekly outflow since the summer of 2016 – and once again it’s Brexit that is the main cause of the selling.
For the last two years, markets have been able to ignore the possibility of a disorderly Brexit disrupting the European economy, but it’s increasingly hard to ignore, with Prime Minister Theresa May still unable to get her withdrawal plan through parliament with less than 50 days to go till March 29.
The auto sector is particularly exposed to Brexit issues, given the deep cross-border integration in supply chains and the value of the U.K. market. But Brexit isn’t the only problem it faces – tighter emissions standards in Europe and slower demand in China aren’t helping either.
New data out Friday showed new car registrations in Europe were down 4.6% on the year in January, suggesting that the industry is only slowly getting over the problems it had with new testing standards last year. Data from China overnight also showed declines for most major brands. Germany’s Volkswagen (DE:VOWG_p), BMW (DE:BMWG) and Daimler (DE:DAIGn), as well as Peugeot (PA:PEUP) and Fiat Chrysler (MI:FCHA), are all toward the bottom of their respective indices this morning.
In other news, Spanish stocks have reacted with a shrug to the announcement of snap elections on April 28 after the minority socialist government lost a key budget vote earlier this week.
Elsewhere, engineering giant Thyssenkrupp (DE:TKAG) continues to fall as investors lose faith with its restructuring strategy. It’s down 1.3% and has lost 9% this week.
But there’s brighter news from France, where Vivendi (PA:VIV) surged after a strong quarterly update driven by its Universal Music Group unit. Vivendi faces frustration in its struggle for control of Telecom Italia (MI:TLIT), however. Shares in the Italian group rose 6% after the Rome government cleared the way for state-owned CDP to raise its stake to 10%.