European stocks claw back losses after Trump says ’50-50 chance’ of trade deal with the EU

European stock markets closed well off their session lows after President Donald Trump said there was only a “50-50 chance” of trade deal with the EU ahead of his self-imposed deadline of August 1.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index initially fell sharply to session lows of 0.6% shortly after his comments, but ended the day down 0.2%.

Regionally, the U.K.’s FTSE 100

 was down 0.2% and Germany’s DAX was off 0.3%. Meanwhile, France’s CAC 40 rose 0.2%.

European stock markets were more volatile after U.S. President Donald Trump said there was only a “50-50 chance” of trade deal with the EU ahead of his self-imposed deadline of August 1.

The Stoxx Europe 600

 index fell sharply to session lows of 0.6% shortly after Trump’s comments, only to recover some of the loss shortly after to trade lower by 0.44% at 2.20 p.m. in London (9.20 a.m. ET).

“I would say that we have a 50-50 chance, maybe less than that, but a 50-50 chance of making a deal with the EU,” said Trump.

Brussels is preparing for a no-deal scenario as uncertainty persists about if and when a trade agreement between the European Union and U.S. will materialize.