BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - French stocks tumbled on Thursday after the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned of a recession worse than any since World War Two, and called for more fiscal support to shield the world's largest economy from long-term economic damage due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Meanwhile, extra debt shouldered by governments and companies to steer through the Covid-19 crisis will 'come back to haunt us', the boss of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has warned.
The benchmark CAC 40 fell 86 points, or 1.99 percent, to 4,258 after plummeting 2.9 percent the previous day.
Pharmaceutical giant Sanofi fell nearly 2 percent. CEO Paul Hudson has said that the U.S. will likely have first access to its Covid-19 vaccine if it succeeds.
Airbus shed 0.8 percent after reports that it is exploring restructuring plans including job cuts.
Exchange operator Euronext rallied 3.7 percent after it reported a 55 percent jump in quarterly revenue.
Electric utility EDF climbed 2.3 percent after maintaining its nuclear output forecast.
Industrial group Bouygues slumped 4.6 percent after widening its first-quarter net loss.
In economic releases, French unemployment rate declined in the first quarter as the number of persons actively searching for jobs decreased sharply during the lockdown, data from the statistical office Insee showed.
The ILO jobless rate dropped to 7.8 percent from 8.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2019, while it was forecast to rise to 8.4 percent. This was the lowest since the fourth quarter of 2008.
In metropolitan France, the unemployment rate came in at 7.6 percent.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX