LONDON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Italian and German blue-chips
officially entered correction territory on Wednesday morning as
a sudden jump in coronavirus cases in Italy and in other
European countries raised worries about a prolonged economic
slowdown.
Investors typically consider a correction in a security or
index to be a drop of 10% or more from its recent peak.
Italy's FTSE MIB .FTMIB has fallen nearly 11% in the last
five sessions in a cliff-edge drop from the October 2008 high it
hit on February 19. Germany's DAX .GDAXI also briefly dropped
10% from the same date.
"Equities are coming back to earth fast," Barclays European
equity strategist Emmanuel Cau said in a note.
"The global virus outbreak adds material downside risks to
the macro outlook and could thus continue to fuel the flight to
safety".