Shares in alcohol companies were shaken by a threat from Donald Trump that the US will slap a 200% tariff on French wine, champagne and other alcohol produced in European Union countries.
He said in a social media post that the EU "has just put a nasty 50% tariff on whisky".
And the threatened 200% tariff will be imposed shortly "if this tariff is not removed immediately".
Shares in Diageo PLC (LSE:DGE), which produces Guinness and Johnnie Walker, tumbled 1.7% initially before easing to a 1% decline. Paris-traded Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (EPA:MC), which makes Moet champagne and Hennessy cognac among other drinks, was down 0.3%.
Budweiser maker Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE:BUD) down 1.4% and Molson Coors Beverage shares fell 1.7% premarket in the US. Jack Daniels maker Brown-Forman was little moved.
A day earlier, the EU's executive arm announced a series of "countermeasures" in response to new US tariffs on 25% on steel and aluminium imports.
Starting on 1 April, the European Commission said its tariffs will be applied on products "from boats to bourbon to motorbikes" and were designed to correspond "to the increased value of trade impacted by the new US tariffs".