European stocks fall on renewed trade concerns, amid Brexit talks

European stocks opened lower today, to fall for the first session in the last four, on increased profit-taking activity and renewed concerns about the US-China trade dispute due to uncertainty about the interim deal that was agreed upon by the two countries last week, ahead of major talks between the British government and the EU on the Brexit file.

Stoxx Europe 600 was lower by 0.7% as of 11:21 GMT, while it closed higher by 2.1% on on Friday, its third straight daily gain and a 1-week high.

During the last week, the index gained more than 3%, its first weekly gain in the last 3 weeks, on news of progress in the US-China trade talks and hopes for a Brexit deal.

The index opened today's session lower, to fall for the first session in the last four, on increased profit-taking, to head for the first loss in 4 days, with most of the major European markets and sectors falling.

The European mining sector saw the largest losses today with a drop by more than 2.5%, on the renewed concerns about the trade disputes.

The US and China announced on Friday that they had agreed on a partial trade deal, with the Phase one of the deal including Washington delay of the tariffs increase decision which was set by this week, after the high-level trade talks round that took 2 days.

Whilst the previous and current tariffs between the two countries are still in effect until the deal is signed, without revealing any further details on the interim agreement.

The US government delayed the tariffs increase decision to 30% from 25% on Chinese imports worth $250 billion, which was set by the middle of this month, President Trump stated the deal will be signed over the next 3 or 4 weeks, and China will increase its purchases of US agricultural products to between $40 and $50 billion.

The British government and the EU will conclude their Brexit talks later today, which are aimed at preventing a chaotic exit before the deadline by the end of this month, while the BBC said that there's still disagreement about the customs arrangements.

S&P 500 futures rose by 0.4% today, as it closed higher by 1.1% on Friday at Wall Street, in its third straight daily gain.

The Euro Stoxx 50 index fell by 0.7%, in France the CAC 40 fell by 0.7%, and Germany's DAX fell by 0.6%, while in London the FTSE 100 fell by 0.5%.