LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Stocks on the Continent remained firmly in the red in afternoon trading following news overnight that the rate of new coronavirus infections outside of China had accelerated.
Compouning matters, the night before, California declared a state of emergency following the death of a passenger on a cruise ship carrying 21 other people that was now being held off the coast of San Francisco.

Against that backdrop, Jim Reid at Deutsche Bank mused out loud: "A reminder from yesterday that after the last 7 emergency Fed cuts the median S&P 500 price move has been +2.8% (1 week later), -4.3% (6 months) and -9.2% (1 year). So there is previous form for an initial positive reaction before declines set in."

As of 1430 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was down 1.64% to 379.95, alongside a 1.92% drop on the German Dax to 11,893.41, while Spain's Ibex 35 was off by 2.67% to 8,679.9.

Euro/dollar meanwhile was up 0.45% at 1.1186 while front month Brent crude oil futures were sliding 0.6% to $50.83 a barrel on the ICE.

Overnight, the number of new virus cases in South Korea had slowed noticeably, hitting 435 which was "well below" the five-day average increase of 684, Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Macroeconomics pointed out.

But in Italy the case count jumped by 587, versus a five-day average of 369, and in Iran by 586 against a five-day average of 418.

And in Germany, France and Spain together, 204 more cases were reported, more than double those on the previous day.

"The broadening of the global outbreak outside the big four is disconcerting, and the patterns seen in the initial outbreaks suggests that yesterday's dip in the total number of worldwide new cases will prove temporary," Shepherdson said.

"The news, in absolute terms of new infections, is likely to get worse."

Confirmed new cases in China also continued to trend lower, with the WHO reporting a dip from 130 on 3 March to 120 on 4 March.

In parallel, the share prices of a slew of companies across the Continent were being hit by news linked to the virus.

UK-listed Cineworld was the second-biggest faller on the Stoxx 600 after Peel Hunt took an axe to its target price for the firm in the wake of its revised assumptions for the coronavirus crisis.

Stock in German auto parts supplier Continental AG was also down sharply after management guided towards falling sales in a shrinking market, preducting 2020 revenues of €42.5-44.5bn against 2019 sales of €44.5bn.

Airbus was another top faller amid reports that it was considering lowering the rate of production of its A330 jet in the wake of the coronavirus' impact on airline travel.

To take note of, shares of the pan-European aerospace manufacturer were sitting atop their primary bullish trend-line stretching all the way back to its 2008 lows.

Airline stocks themselves were also moving lower, with Air France pacing losses after trade body IATA forecast revenue losses for the global air transport sector in 2020 of between $63-113bn.

CAC 40 - Risers

Pernod Ricard (RI) 151.90 +1.37%

CAC 40 - Fallers

Valeo (FR) 20.03 -6.76%

Renault (RNO) 23.46 -6.38%

Societe Generale S.A. (GLE) 22.77 -5.84%

ArcelorMittal SA (MT) 12.31 -5.73%

Credit Agricole (ACA) 9.56 -5.54%

BNP Paribas (BNP) 40.16 -4.94%

Publicis Groupe Sa (PUB) 33.25 -4.36%

Safran (SAF) 121.82 -4.04%

Airbus SE (AIR) 106.72 -3.82%

Michelin (ML) 93.61 -3.68%

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