European stocks retreated Thursday with investors pausing to digest an economic warning from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Chairman Jerome Powell.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 dropped 0.8% in early trade, with basic resources shedding 1.3% to lead losses as all sectors and major bourses slid into negative territory.
Declines at the open in Europe come after Powell said Wednesday that policymakers may have to use additional policy weapons to pull the country out of an economic mire that has cost at least 20 million jobs and caused “a level of pain that is hard to capture in words.”
“While the economic response has been both timely and appropriately large, it may not be the final chapter, given that the path ahead is both highly uncertain and subject to significant downside risks,” he said.
Biggest movers
British investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown saw its shares jump more than 7% in early trade after a strong first-quarter earnings report.
At the bottom of the European blue chip index, Portuguese food distributor Jerónimo Martins saw its shares plunge 12% after it posted sales growth during the pandemic but warned of an uncertain future.
– CNBC’s Jeff Cox and Eustance Huang contributed to this market report.
