European stocks got slammed and are at 3-week lows

European markets got crushed on Tuesday, with all but one of the continent’s biggest share indexes losing more than 1% on the day, sending bourses to three week lows.

The falls came on a day light on economic data, with the highlight being a better than expected number for the continent’s producer price index. However, a horrible day for banks across the continent dragged on stocks.

On the day, Societe General and Credit Agricole both dropped 4%, Commerzbank sank nearly 9.5%, Deutsche Bank lost 6%, and Barclays slipped 3.7%.

While every single major European index fell by some measure on the day, the biggest losers were in the eurozone’s third and fourth largest economies respectively. In Italy, the FTSE MIB dropped 2.3%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 was off 2.7%. Here’s how that looked:

Investing.com

Investing.com

Among Spain’s biggest losers were Caixabank, Bankia, and Santander — lower by 5.42%, 5.05%, and 4.44% respectively. Things were similarly bleak in Italy’s banking sector, where Monte dei Paschi Siena and Banco Popolare SC were both off by more than 7%.

Stocks didn’t look much better in the rest of Europe, although the FTSE 100 was a relative bright spot, losing just 0.9% on its first trading day after the long weekend, although mining stocks took a pounding on a fall in the price of copper. British stocks were also dragged by a pretty disastrous set of PMI data for the UK’s manufacturing sector. Here’s the scoreboard:

• Britain’s FTSE 100 — down 0.93%
• France’s CAC 40 — down 1.48%
• Germany’s DAX 30 — down 1.92%
• Netherlands’ AEX — down 1.76%
• Euro Stoxx 50 broad index — down 1.82%