MW: European stocks on track for fourth day of losses
By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) — European stocks dropped Wednesday, facing a fourth day of declines as they keyed off a slide in the U.S. equity market.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index XX:SXXP -0.54% fell 0.8% to 342.98.
European as well as Asian stocks came under pressure after a late Tuesday afternoon selloff on Wall Street that left the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -0.70% down more than 100 points, its worst performance in more than a month. Profit-taking ahead of the end of the second quarter and an escalation in violence in Iraq were among the factors analysts said spurred the downturn.
“There is a feeling that Iraq has the potential to be a drag, and yesterday, perhaps, this was the first real sign of this being the case,” said Hantec Markets analyst Richard Perry in a daily report Wednesday.
Weaker-than-expected euro-zone business activity and German confidence data has also weighed on European stocks this week.
In corporate developments, GDF Suez SA FR:GSZ -2.50% fell 3% after the French government sold a 3.1% stake in the energy company in a move aimed to raise funds toward its purchase of a stake in engineering firm Alstom SA FR:ALO +2.05% . In Paris, the CAC 40 index FR:PX1 -0.59% fell 0.7% to 4,484.65.
But Shares of Metro AG DE:MEO +1.72% outperformed the broader market, climbing 1.4% after the German retailer’s rating at J.P. Morgan Cazenove was raised to neutral from underweight.
Germany’s DAX 30 equity index DX:DAX -0.34% lost 0.7% to 9,866.64 and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 index UK:UKX -0.57% declined 0.6% to 6,744.77.
