European Stocks Slide as Spanish Attack Adds to Market Unease

(Bloomberg) -- European stocks fell as a terror attack in Barcelona weighed on investor sentiment.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index dropped 0.7 percent at the close, trimming their weekly advance to 0.6 percent. While stocks around the world declined, financial markets have proven increasingly resilient to terror attacks in recent years.

Europe’s benchmark has struggled to rebound since a mid-May peak, weighed down by a strengthening euro and geopolitical tension. Also contributing to global market unease this week are worries about U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration following last week’s violence in Virginia.

• Spain’s IBEX 35 Index slid 0.6 percent after trading 1.5 percent lower earlier in the day. Spanish police killed five suspected terrorists, hours after a van rampaged down Barcelona’s Las Ramblas avenue, leaving 13 people dead and at least 100 injured. More were hurt in a second incident in the resort town of Cambrils, which the government said was connected to the Barcelona attack.
• All 19 groups in the Stoxx 600 dropped, with travel and media shares sliding the most. Lenders are down for a second day amid falling odds for another U.S. rate hike this year.
• In the U.S., a Senate Republican spoke of the need for “radical changes,” saying Trump hasn’t yet demonstrated the characteristics needed to serve in his job, while several others in his party called on the president to make a clearer denunciation of white supremacist groups. Former Vice President Al Gore called for Trump to step down.

--With assistance from Elena Popina

To contact the reporter on this story: Namitha Jagadeesh in London at njagadeesh@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Celeste Perri at cperri@bloomberg.net, Steven Fromm at sfromm@bloomberg.net.