European auto shares fall after fresh Trump tariffs; Jeep-maker Stellantis down 5.2%

British retail giant Next made over a billion pounds in annual profit for the first time and raised its sales and profit guidance for 2025, it reported on Thursday.

Next, a staple in British retail brands, reported a pretax profit of £1,011 billion ($1.3 billion) in 2024, up 10.1% from the previous year and surpassing the billion pound milestone. Its total group sales hit £6.3 billion, rising 8.2%.

The company attributed its strong performance to being a “comprehensive service provider for other retailers,” noting that 42% of its online sales don’t come from Next branded products.

It upgraded its sales guidance for the first half of 2025 to 6.5%, up from 3.5%, resulting in guidance for full-year price sales growth to increase to 5%.

However, Next is not upgrading its sales guidance of 3.5% for the second half of the year, citing tax rises in the U.K. from April, which will “weaken the UK employment market and negatively impact consumer confidence as the year progresses.”

— Sawdah Bhaimiya

Europe’s Stoxx Automobiles and Parts index was 2.8% lower by 8:35 a.m. London time on Thursday, after U.S. President Donald Trump said new 25% tariffs on all cars made outside of the U.S. would come into force from April 2.

The sector had earlier traded even lower, shedding more than 3% shortly after the opening bell.

By 8:35 a.m., shares of Jeep-maker Stellantis and Mercedes-Benz were both down 5.6%, while Porsche had shed 5.4%, BMW was 4.3% lower and Volkswagen stock had slid 3.5%.

Last year, the U.S. was the leading buyer of EU-made goods in the world, with machinery and vehicles accounting for most of the bloc’s exports to America. In 2024, the EU had a vehicles and machinery trade surplus with the U.S. worth 102 billion euros ($109.8 billion).

In a statement on Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU will seek solutions through talks while safeguarding its economic interests.

“As a major trading power and a strong community of 27 Member States, we will jointly protect our workers, businesses and consumers across our European Union,” she said.

— Chloe Taylor

H&M on Thursday posted weaker than expected first-quarter sales in a slow start to the year for the world’s second-largest clothing retailer.

Sales at the Swedish fashion giant rose 2% in local currencies to 55.33 billion Swedish krona ($5.5 billion) in the three-month period, slightly below the 55.86 billion forecast by LSEG analysts.

Operating profit totaled 1.2 billion in the first quarter, versus 1.9 billion Swedish krona expected.

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— Karen Gilchrist

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose “far larger” tariffs on the European Union (EU) and Canada if they work together to combat trade tariffs.

“If the European Union works with Canada in order to do economic harm to the USA, large scale Tariffs, far larger than currently planned, will be placed on them both in order to protect the best friend that each of those two countries has ever had!,” Trump said in a Truth Social update on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the White House leader had announced that he will set a 25% tariff on “all cars that are not made in the United States” with the levies due to take effect on April 2.

Trump White House aide Will Scharf said the new duties apply to “foreign-made cars and light trucks” and come in addition to tariffs that are already in place. He estimated that the measures will result in “over $100 billion of new annual revenue” to the U.S.

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— Holly Ellyatt

Whether President Trump will indeed soften his approach to tariffs as he has recently suggested is uncertain, but one thing that is clear is that average tariff rates are rising, according to Barclays.

“We think the direction of travel is clear: average tariff rates are increasing, likely to levels not seen since before World War II,” the firm’s Michael McLean wrote Wednesday.

“At the end of 2024, the US weighted average tariff rate was 2.5%. After the tariffs that Trump has implemented so far, the average tariff rate has increased more than 3 times to over 8%,” he continued. “We assume once Trump is finished, it could be as high as 15%.”

— Sarah Min

In a recent note, UBS shared three compelling reasons why investors should favor U.S. artificial intelligence firms over those of China’s.

“A lingering sense of nervousness remains among AI investors, primarily centered on the concern that Chinese AI developers and their low-cost models threaten to usurp US competitors with higher sunk investment costs,” wrote Mark Haefele, chief investment officer of UBS Global Wealth Management. “While both the United States and China have made significant strides in the AI sector, CIO believes there are compelling reasons to favor US AI companies over their Chinese counterparts, especially in the near term.”

Haefele said outsized capital expenditures from U.S. firms should drive greater competitive advantage.

“The higher capex intensity in the US, defined as capex spending divided by revenues, stands at 20% in 2025 compared to China’s 11.7%. This disparity highlights the US’s commitment to maintaining a technological edge, even though it may lead to higher depreciation-related expenses in the short term,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, higher research and development spending from U.S. AI firms means they are better positioned to discover “the next big thing.” Finally, Haefele underscored that U.S. firms have a “clear advantage” in higher monetization potential, suggesting that they have a better chance of generating revenues and profits.

— Lisa Kailai Han

European markets are expected to open sharply lower Thursday as global markets react to new automotive tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The U.K.’s FTSE 100 index is expected to open 25 points lower at 8,665, Germany’s DAX down 159 points at 22,685, France’s CAC 35 points lower at 7,991 and Italy’s FTSE MIB 188 points lower at 38,152, according to data from IG. 

Earnings are set to come from H&M and Next, while data releases will include final U.S. fourth-quarter gross domestic product data and Spanish business confidence figures.

— Holly Ellyatt