Europe midday: Stocks hold lower as investors monitor virus spread
The rout in European stockmarkets extended into a seventh straight session as some investors took out insurance going into the weekend, and the number of coronavirus infections continued to rise.
A key manufacturing survey was due out in China on Saturday and South Korean officials were expected to release the results of testing on the members of a Shincheonji church which it was thought might harbour a large number of cases.
"Do you want to be long going into the weekend, even at these lower prices, when any number of worrying headlines may potentially hit the screens?," analysts at Rabobank mused out loud.
As of 1302 GMT, the Pan-European Stoxx 600 was down by 2.78% to 378.61, alongside a 3.24% fall for Germany's Dax to 11,971.06, while the FTSE Mibtel was 2.66% lower to 22,187.26.
Travel & Leisure stocks were still getting pummelled, with the Stoxx 600 sector gauge falling by a further 3.06% - but off its worst levels of the session.
In parallel, front month Brent crude oil futures were retreating 2.2% to $51.04 a barrel on ICE.
Dutch biotechnology outfit arGEN-X SE was the worst performer on the Stoxx 600 after announcing that its full-year net profit loss had more than doubled to -€158.2m.
Stock in French media giant Lagardere was right behind on the back of its own full-year numbers.
Overnight, the benchmark US S&P 500 had fallen into so-called correction territory after closing down by more than 10% from its 19 February peak, as traders began worrying aloud if a global recession was lurking just around the corner.
And the World Health Organisation said that the caseload of coronavirus cases outside of China had increased by 746, versus an increase of 459 the day before, amid news of the first cases of the virus being detected in Nigeria and New Zealand, alongside the death of Iran's ambassador to the Vatican.
The latest batch of economic data out of the euro area was mixed.
INSEE reported that French household consumption shrank at a 1.1% month-on-month pace in January, undershooting the consensus forecast for a 0.2% dip by a wide margin.
German unemployment claims on the other hand fell by 10,000 in February, defying forecasts for an increase of 4,500, although the number of vacancies declined by another 4,000, signalling an underlying weakening trend, according to Claus Vistesen at Pantheon Macroeconomics.