European stocks fall on lukewarm reception of US-China trade deal

European stocks fell on Thursday, to head for the first daily loss in 3 days, on the tepid reception for the signing of the phase-one trade deal between the US and China and the announcement of the launch of the talks for the phase-two deal.

Stoxx Europe 600 fell 0.2% as of 11:50 GMT, after it closed higher by 0.1% yesterday, to post its second straight daily gain.

The index opened today's session lower, heading to the first daily loss in 3 days, as most of the major European exchanges and sectors fell today.

The automotive sector saw the largest losses in Europe today, with a drop by more than 0.9%, as most shares of global auto companies fell.

US President Donald Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He signed the phase one of the trade deal yesterday at the White House.

According to this initial trade deal, the US will cut some tariffs on Chinese imports and China pledged to increase its purchases of US foods.

The trade deal signing is the first step toward ending the 18-month old trade war, however, there's uncertainty over many major issues in the trade war that are still lacking any agreement, which are planned to be the focus in the phase-two deal.

S&P 500 futures gained 0.3% today, to reach the all-time high after closing high by 0.2% yesterday at Wall Street, at the record of 3,298.66 points.

Back to Europe, the Euro Stoxx 50 index lost 0.2%, France's CAC 40 fell by 0.1%, Germany's DAX shed 0.1%, and In London, the FTSE 100 index fell by 0.5%.