European markets finish lower on Friday; ASMI, BESI dip

European markets dipped on Friday, following Wall Street’s record-breaking rally on Thursday.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 finished the session almost 0.5% lower.

Global investors were watching the latest developments between Ukraine and Russia on Friday amid warnings by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte that Europe must be prepared for war.

“Russia has brought war back to Europe, and we must be prepared for the scale of war our grandparents or great-grandparents endured,” he said.

It comes as Russia’s central bank said Europe’s plan to use frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine was illegal. European Union governments are looking to agree on the proposal on Friday, per reports.

On the theme of defense, the White House’s new national security strategy spooked Europe last week as it warned the region faced “civilizational erasure” and questioned whether it could remain a geopolitical partner for the U.S., and fallout from the publication continues.

David Petraeus, the former CIA Director and a four-star US Army general, told CNBC on Thursday that it was no bad thing for European nations to get a wake-up call to prioritize their defense and security.

The strategy was, “in a way, going after the Europeans but, frankly, some of the Europeans needed to be gotten after because I watched as four different presidents tried to exhort the Europeans to do more for their own defense and now that’s actually happening,” he told CNBC’s Dan Murphy in Abu Dhabi.

On individual stocks, French private equity Wendel led the European index with a 5% gain amid reports that it will hand out 1.6 billion euros ($1.88 billion) to investors by 2030.