12:01 PM EDT, 03/21/2025 (MT Newswires) -- The European stock markets were closing out the week lower in Friday trading as the Stoxx Europe 600 dropped 0.67%, Germany's DAX fell 0.74%, the FTSE 100 in London lost 0.62%, France's CAC 40 declined 0.71%, and the Swiss Market Index was off 0.24%.

The European Commission's Directorate-General Economic and Financial Affairs' preliminary estimate for its monthly consumer confidence index for March declined 1 percentage point to -13.9 in the EU and 0.9 of a percentage point to -14.5 in the euro area as "consumer confidence veered further away from its long-term average again," the Commission said.

In France, the index tracking the country's business climate rose for the fourth straight month in March to 96.7 from 95.7 in February, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. However, this is below March of 2024 when the index was at its long-term average of 100. INSEE also reported that the employment climate index climbed to 96.1 in March from 93.4 the previous month but was down from 100.5 a year earlier.

And in corporate news, Rio Tinto is seeking to increase US investments, prioritizing copper after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to streamline permitting processes and increase government funding for mineral projects, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing Katie Jackson, the head of the company's copper business. Rio Tinto didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from MT Newswires.

AstraZeneca will invest $2.5 billion in a new research center in Beijing just months after the company's top executive there was detained by Chinese authorities, Bloomberg reported Friday.

Shell said Friday its Brazilian subsidiary, Shell Brazil Petroleo, has joined a consortium holding stakes in the Gato do Mato deep-water project in the pre-salt area of the Santos Basin offshore of Brazil's Rio de Janeiro coast.

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