BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - French stocks fell sharply on Wednesday as the return of trade tensions between the U.S. and China coupled with concerns regarding a potential second wave of the coronavirus pandemic curbed investors' appetite for risk.
On the data front, Eurozone industrial production suffered its steepest monthly fall on record in March as several countries went into lockdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, preliminary data from Eurostat showed today.
Industrial production in the single currency area fell 11.3 percent month-on-month, marking the sharpest decline since records started in 1991.
Traders looked to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's speech on the economy later in the day after U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday again urged the U.S. central bank to adopt negative interest rates.
U.S. consumer prices in April dropped by the most since the Great Recession, weighed down by a plunge in demand for gasoline and services, including airline travel, the Labor Department said on Tuesday.
The benchmark CAC 40 was down 95 points, or 2.1 percent, at 4.379 after losing 0.4 percent the previous day.
L'Oréal shares fell over 2 percent. The cosmetics and beauty products giant suspended a planned dividend increase and said it would also renounce any share buyback program in 2020.
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