Paris (AFP)

The start of the week had been a little milder on the markets, but on Wednesday anxiety returned, with severe declines in European markets at the opening in the wake of Asia and Wall Street.

The deadly acceleration of the virus in the United States, which now has more victims than in China and where President Donald Trump asked his fellow citizens to prepare for "very very painful" weeks weighed heavily.

Around 09:45 (07:45 GMT), Paris lost 4.22%, Frankfurt 3.87% and London 4.43%. Milan also declined by 2.05% and Madrid by 3.13%.

In Asia, where yesterday's session had already been difficult, the Tokyo Stock Exchange lost 4.5%.

"World stock markets have closed a dark quarter, one of the worst in history" and "the handover between the first quarter and the second promises to be difficult after the dark words of Donald Trump on the situation to be expected in the next two weeks in the United States, "said Tangi Le Liboux, a strategist with broker Aurel BGC.

"The American president, who hoped to get the country back to work for Easter, will probably have to wait another month or two," he added.

At the end of a hesitant session, the European stock markets had managed the day before to stay in the green but in the evening Wall Street ended up folding.

The flagship index of the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, lost 1.84%, marking its worst quarter since 1987 (-23%). The broad S&P 500 index, which represents the 500 largest companies on Wall Street, fell by 1.60%, receiving a drop of 20% since the beginning of 2020. The Nasdaq, with its strong technological coloring, fell more modestly 0.95%.

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Oil, which had taken a bit of a breath on Tuesday, was also falling, again depressed by the double impact of the coronavirus pandemic which is causing world demand for black gold to drop and the price war being waged by Arabia Saudi and Russia.

The debt market on the other hand still did not depart from its calm, as in recent days, largely watered by the generosity of central banks.

Foreign exchange side, the euro continued to weaken against the greenback

Today's indicators, which now incorporate the disastrous effects of the pandemic, should add to the mood.

For the automobile, the historic fall of more than 70% of the French market and the collapse of sales in Japan were already setting the tone.

Later today, the figures for job creation in the private sector in the United States in March (ADP survey) should be particularly followed.

"After the appalling figures" of weekly jobless claims, this new figure should "confirm that job destruction has reached an unprecedented level due to the crisis," anticipates Christopher Dembik, head of economic research at Saxo Bank.

"Investors are still feverish despite massive support from central banks and the United States and will have to navigate for several weeks in a market environment marked by very bad statistics and an extension of containment measures in several countries," he said. until the end of April / beginning of May in the best of scenarios ".

© 2020 AFP