London — European stocks fell on Friday, halting their biggest ever three-day rally in a sign that investors are focusing once more on the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, despite hopes for further stimulus measures to combat its economic impact.The benchmark index has recovered almost 17% since hitting its lowest since 2013 on March 16, but remains more than 26% below last month’s all-time high in a rout that has erased more than $3-trillion from the value of European firms.
The losses came after stock markets rallied in Asia and Wall Street overnight. MSCI’s all country world index, which tracks stocks across 49 countries, was down 0.1% on the day. The US is now the country with the most confirmed and active coronavirus cases, surpassing even China, where Covid-19 first emerged late last year.
The number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits surged to a record of more than 3-million last week as strict measures to contain the virus pandemic ground the country to a sudden halt, data showed on Thursday. “The big picture message is that an expanding Fed balance sheet is correlated with a higher equity market,” said Neil MacKinnon, economist at VTB Capital in London.
The US currency’s fall after two weeks of gains suggests the Fed’s efforts to relieve a crunch in the dollar funding market are working, some analysts said.