By Steve Goldstein
European stocks on Monday were engulfed in red, suffering their worst single day of trade in three months.
The Stoxx Europe 600 /zigman2/quotes/210599654/delayed XX:SXXP -0.15% dropped 3.8% to 456,40, with all of the major sector indexes losing ground. That was the worst single-day drop since June 11, 2020.
Double-digit declines were seen for companies including French care homes company Orpea /zigman2/quotes/204431094/delayed FR:ORP +0.11% , Swiss e-pharmacy provider Zur Rose and Irish construction materials company Kingspan /zigman2/quotes/200640650/delayed IE:KRX -2.32% .
The German DAX /zigman2/quotes/210597999/delayed DX:DAX -0.26% and French CAC 40 /zigman2/quotes/210597958/delayed FR:PX1 -0.15% each declined nearly 4%, and the U.K. FTSE 100 /zigman2/quotes/210598409/delayed UK:UKX -0.51% fell by nearly 3%.
“The poor start to the week comes hot on the heels of a rather bearish week for risk assets. Investors have not been impressed by the results of U.S. bank earnings in the fourth quarter, while on a more macro level, concerns about policy tightening from the Fed and high levels of inflation around the world have also weighed heavily on risk appetite,” said Renne Friedman, senior economist at Exante.
Despite a smaller weighting toward technology and other growth sectors, European stocks haven’t been much of a refuge, sliding over 6% this year as the U.S. S&P 500 /zigman2/quotes/210599714/realtime SPX +0.23% has dropped 10%.
Russian stocks collapsed on Monday after the State Department ordered families of diplomats to leave Ukraine, a sign of a possible war breaking out. The U.S. and European allies have said they would retaliate for an invasion with sanctions.
There were a handful of gainers. Accell shares surged 25% to €57.50 after a KKR-led consortium agreed to pay €58 per share, or €1.6 billion in cash for the maker of Raleigh bicycles.
Vodafone /zigman2/quotes/202484985/delayed UK:VOD +1.07% /zigman2/quotes/202862751/composite VOD +0.84% shares rallied 4% on speculation of tie-ups with Three in the U.K. and Iliad in Italy.
Unilever /zigman2/quotes/205449809/delayed UK:ULVR -0.89% /zigman2/quotes/204685760/composite UL -0.68% shares rallied 7% after The Wall Street Journal reported that activist investor Nelson Peltz took a stake after an attempt to buy GlaxoSmithKline’s /zigman2/quotes/200381158/delayed UK:GSK +0.25% consumer health unit quickly fizzled.
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