Europe close: Stocks hit by poor US data, jump in Covid-19 cases in Spain
Stocks were pummeled as economic data in the US showed record falls in retail sales and in factory activity in the New York area, underscoring the toll that the Covid-19 pandemic could be expected to take on the economy.
Also dampening the mood was news of mixed progress on the coronavirus pandemic front.
Overnight, Italy's civil protection service reported a further slowdown in the rate of growth of Covid-19 cases, from 1,363 on Monday to 675 for Tuesday.
But in Spain, the number of new infections jumped from 3,045 on Tuesday to 5,092 come Wednesday, with the government attributing the increase to a sharp ramp-up in testing starting two weeks before and delayed reporting on account of Easter.
By the end of trading, the benchmark Stoxx 600 had fallen 3.25% to 323.06, alongside a 3.9% fall for the German Dax to 10,279.76, while the FTSE Mibtel was down 4.78% to 16,719.07.
Front month Brent crude oil futures meanwhile retreated 6.25% to $27.86 a barrel on the ICE.
Triggering the slide in crude, in its April oil market report, the International Energy Agency forecast a 29m barrel a day drop in global demand for that same month, while for the year as a whole demand was seen falling by 9.3m b/d.
Euro/dollar meanwhile was off by 0.55% to 1.0920.
There was little by the way of fresh economic data for investors.
Revised figures from INSEE showed that on a harmonised basis, consumer prices in France rose at a 0.8% year-on-year pace in March, up from a preliminary estimate of 0.7% but much lower than the 1.6% increase observed in February.
In Italy, ISTAT confirmed a decline in the year-on-year rate of inflation from 0.2% in February to 0.1% for March.