European shares tumbled on Wednesday as worries about coronavirus spread mounted after the U.S. warned of nearly a quarter million deaths from the pandemic.
During a White House press conference on Tuesday, President Donald Trump warned the U.S. is facing a "very, very painful two weeks."
"This could be a hell of a bad two weeks. This is going to be a very bad two, and maybe three weeks. This is going to be three weeks like we've never seen before," Trump said.
The comments from the White House came after data from Johns Hopkins University showed there are nearly 190,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. and more than 4,000 deaths.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Tuesday that the world faces the most challenging crisis since World War II, threatening a lengthy global recession that probably has no parallel in the recent past.
The pan European Stoxx 600 ended down 3.15%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 declined 4.28%, Germany's DAX dropped nearly 4% and France's CAC 40 shed 4.3%, while Switzerland's SMI closed 1.54% down.
Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Sweden lot 2 to 4%.
Portugal, Russia and Iceland also declined sharply, while Denmark, Norway, Turkey and Ukraine fared relatively better.
Bank stocks were among the most prominent losers in the session. In the U.K. stocks from the banking space fell sharply after lender announced they woould scrap dividends in 2020 following pressure from the Bank of England.
In the German market, MTU Aero declined more than 10%. Daimler, Continental, Deutsche Bank, Lufthansa, Volkswagen, BMW, SAP, RWE, Siemens and BASF lost 4 to 7%. Wirecard, Allianz and Bayer also declined sharply.
In France, Safran tumbled more than 16%. Airbus Group declined 12% and Vinci ended lower by about 11%. Societe Generale, Bouygues, Renault, ArcelorMittal, Peugeot, BNP Paribas, STMicroElectronics and Capgemini lost 4 to 10%.
In the U.K. market, Carnival shares tanked nearly 21%. Meggitt shed about 15.4% and Melrose lost 14.75%. Barclays and Lloyds Group both ended lower by nearly 12%.
Aston Martin plunged as much as 47%. Cineworld lost 17.6%, while Ricardo and Future lost 14.4% and 13.4%, respectively.
In economic releases, Eurozone manufacturing activity contracted at the fastest pace in more than seven years in March as the outbreak of coronavirus, or covid-19 weighed on orders, output, employment and confidence, final data from IHS Markit showed.
The final factory Purchasing Managers' Index fell to 44.5 from 49.2 in February. The reading was also below the flash estimate of 44.8.
The U.K. manufacturing activity contracted in March due to the outbreak of coronavirus and subsequent mitigation efforts, final survey data from IHS Markit showed.
The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply factory Purchasing Managers' Index fell to 47.8 in March from 51.7 in February. The flash estimate was 48.0.
Euro area jobless rate unexpectedly eased to its lowest level since in over a decade in February, just ahead of the announcement of coronavirus pandemic containment measures in several countries in the region.
The jobless rate fell to 7.3%, data from Eurostat showed Wednesday, while economists had expected it to remain unchanged at January's 7.4%. That was the lowest rate since March 2008, the agency added.
In February 2019, the unemployment rate was 7.8%.
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