European stocks open lower in first session of the third quarter

European stocks fell Wednesday, in the first sessions of the third quarter, to head for the first loss in 3 days, on investors' risk aversion, after coronavirus infections soared to new records in the US.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index fell 1.1% as of 11:05 GMT, after closing higher by 0.1% yesterday, posting the second straight daily gain on tech, mining and real estate sectors' gains.

The Stoxx Europe index has gained more than 14% during the second quarter, posting the largest quarterly gain since the first quarter of 2015.

This came thanks to the huge stimulus measures in the euro area to ease the coronavirus impact, the successful containment of the coronavirus pandemic and economies reopening in most of the European countries.

The pan European index opened lower today, to head for the first loss in 3 days, with most European markets and sectors seeing red today.

The automotive sector saw the largest losses in Europe today, with a drop by 2%, on concerns over corporate earnings results in Q2.

The number of new coronavirus cases in the US soared to 46,000 on Tuesday, in the highest rate since the outbreak started, raising fears of a recession in the world's largest economy for a longer than expected period of time.

S&P 500 futures fell more than 0.7%, after the index closed higher by 1.5% yesterday at Wall Street, the second daily gain, and gained 19% during the second quarter, which is the largest quarterly gain since 1998.

Back to Europe, the Euro Stoxx 50 index fell 1.5%, France's CAC 40 fell 1.6%, Germany's DAX dipped 1.5%, and the UK's FTSE 100 fell 1.3%.