LIVE MARKETS-Stocks take a breather in a busy session

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STOCKS TAKE A BREATHER IN A BUSY SESSION

It's been a busy first hour of trading, with Britain accounting for the biggest single-stock moves, while Europe-wide, defence names hit another all-time high, and autos took a bit of a beating.

The net result of all the moves however, is downwards, with the STOXX 600 off 0.6% and Germany's DAX .GDAXI down 1% and Italy's benchmark down 1.3%. With the German index among the best performing globally year to date, investors should be able to weather the blip lower.

Hurting Germany and Italy were declines in autos, .SXAP down 3.3% across Europe, hurt by the latest set of tariff threats from the U.S, which markets had been increasingly pricing out.

At the other end of the table are defence stocks .SXPARO are up 2.4%, largely thanks to a 16% surge in Rolls-Royce RR.Lto a new all time high, after it posted strong results.

The British engineering firm is the day's biggest gainer on the STOXX 600. The biggest faller is advertising firm WPP WPP.L, down 17% after it reported a disappointing final quarter.

(Alun John)

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