Peter Nurse 

Investing.com – European stock markets fell on Friday with concerns about economic growth and tightening monetary policies.

By 3:55 AM ET (0755 GMT), the in Germany traded 1.2% lower, the in France fell 1% and the U.K.’s dropped 0.4%.

European markets are following the lead of Wall Street and Asia, which was prompted by comments made late Thursday night by the U.S. Federal Reserve chairman, who stated that a half-point increase in interest rates will be on the “table” at the May meeting.

This follows European Central Bank Vice President Luis de Guindos acknowledging the possibility of a rate increase in July, potentially the bank’s first in 12 years. 

Money market participants are pricing 80 basis points in ECB rate rises before the end of this year.

The world’s major central banks are looking to tighten monetary policy to combat soaring inflation, just as the war in Ukraine weighs on the outlook for global growth.

The World Bank estimated that the physical damage to Ukraine’s buildings and infrastructure from Russia’s invasion has reached roughly $60 billion to-date, while Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, put the total cost of rebuilding the country at $600 billion.

It fell by 1.4% in March. The drop was the third in the past four months. Rising fuel costs seem to be having an increasing effect on spending habits.

Corporate news Kering (EPA:) stock fell over 5% after reporting slowing growth at the French luxury group’s star label Gucci, weighed by Covid lockdowns in mainland China.

Anheuser Busch Inbev stock (EBR:) fell 1.9% following the announcement by the largest brewery in the world that it would take more than $1 billion due to its exit from its Russian joint venture.

SAP (ETR.) stock dropped 4.2% after the German business-software group reported that it lost 300 million euros (325.26 millions) due to Russia’s withdrawal. Renault (EPA) The stock fell 0.8% as the French automobile giant posted a 2.7% decline in its first quarter revenue compared to a year ago. This is Western’s most important export market.

Oil prices weakened Friday, on course for weekly losses of around 4%, weighed by prospects of interest rate hikes and slowing global growth, while China, the world’s largest crude importer, continued to struggle with a Covid-19 outbreak.

At 3:55 AM ET futures had traded 0.3% lower at $103.47/barrel, and the contract dropped 0.4%, to $107.91. 

Also, the price rose 0.2% at $1,952.60/oz and traded 0.3% less at 1.0806.