European Stocks Drop After US Labor Data |
| Wall Street Journal - May 2, 2012 |
European stocks took a turn for the worse Wednesday as weaker-than-expected U.S. labor data added to concerns about global growth prospects following a string of disappointing releases out of the euro zone earlier.
At 1300 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 index was down 0.4% at 257.28. Frankfurt's DAX was down 0.5% at 6725.14 and London's FTSE 100 was off 0.9% at 5761.92. Paris's CAC 40 fared the best, up 0.2% at 3219.90.
Spanish and Italian equity markets were the worst hit. At 1300 GMT, Spain's IBEX 35 dropped sharply, down 3.3% at 6783.20--its lowest since March 2009--while Italy's FTSE MIB was 2.6% lower at 14,221.37.
Most European equity markets had kicked off the day on a positive note, as bourses returning from the May Day holiday found support in encouraging U.S. manufacturing data from the previous session, which helped to offset some downbeat euro-zone releases. Spain and Italy's manufacturing PMI figures for April were disappointing. And the unemployment rate for the euro area hit a new euro-era high, underlining that the euro-zone crisis is far from over.
European indexes were unable to cling on to gains for very long, though, falling into the red as investors assessed the implications
Read Full Article from Wall Street Journal
- Posted: 2012-05-02 11:13:23
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