European stocks close flat following Trump’s Davos speech, mining names rise

LONDON — European stocks finished Wednesday’s trading mixed following U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as the prospect of an EU-U.S. trade war weighed on investor sentiment.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed the session just above the flatline, trimming earlier losses, as regional bourses and sectors finished mixed.

Trump addressed the WEF at 1.30 p.m. London timeand, separately, CNBC’s Joe Kernen is due to interview the president on the sidelines of the event.

Trump reiterated his desire to annex Greenland, calling for “immediate negotiations” on acquiring the Arctic territory, but saying for the first time he “won’t use force.” He also took aim at Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney, former U.S. President Joe Biden and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, telling attendees “the United States is keeping the whole world afloat.”

Shortly after he finished speaking, European lawmakers said they had suspended the approval of the EU-U.S. trade agreement reached last year.

Bernd Lange, who chairs the European Parliament’s international trade committee, said in a press conference in Strasbourg, France, that the tariff threats were an “attack” on the EU’s economic and territorial sovereignty.

Trump recently threatened new tariffs on a raft of European countries if they block his takeover bid. His ramped-up rhetoric on the U.S. needing to bring Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, under Washington’s control — and the subsequent tariff threats — sparked a sell-off of global assets on Tuesday and raised questions about the resurgence of the so-called sell America trade that first appeared following Trump’s “liberation day” announcements last year.

Speaking at the WEF on Tuesday, European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen labeled Trump’s new tariff proposals a “mistake” that would plunge both Europe and the U.S. into “a dangerous downward spiral.”

“Our response will be unflinching, united and proportional,” she said, while reiterating that the EU stood in “full solidarity” with Greenland and Denmark.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Basic Resources Index was a major outlier on Wednesday, with the continent’s mining names finishing the session up 3.7%. Among the top movers were Anglo American, which closed 4.6% higher, and Rio Tinto, which advanced 5%, as Glencore finished up 3.7%.

French President Emmanuel Macron said a potential response to new U.S. tariffs was to use the EU’s  Anti-Coercion Instrument, which would restrict U.S. businesses’ access to Europe’s single market. Triggering the ACI could exclude American suppliers from participating in EU public tenders, place export and import restrictions on goods and services and put limits on foreign direct investment.

CNBC spoke to a wide range of CEOs, officials, and business figures, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, as well as political leaders, including Polish President Karol Nawrocki. Check out all our Davos coverage here.

Elsewhere, data published Wednesday showed the U.K. inflation rate rose to 3.4% in December, above forecasts of 3.3% from economists polled by Reuters.

The U.K.’s benchmark 10-year gilt yield was flat by the afternoon, while the British pound was flat against the U.S. dollar and the euro.