"What we are looking at now is a crisis of confidence and when you get a crisis of confidence, of course, equities suffer"
- Peter Dixon, a global equities economist at Commerzbank AG
Swiss stocks extended losses on Thursday after a report showed U.S. unemployment claims rose by more than economists forecast.
The Swiss blue-chip index SMI, a measure of the largest and most actively traded companies, erased 0.89%, or 52.64 points, to 5,850.18. The broader Swiss Performance Index fell 0.88%, or 48.46 points, to 5,456.06.
"This is headline trading in extreme, and it'll continue as long as politicians and the European Central Bank are playing hardball," said Witold Bahrke, a senior strategist at PFA Pension A/S in Copenhagen.
"People are scared and need to see someone rallying behind the European idea, finding common solutions to the debt crisis now, rather than opting for opportunistic deals latter."
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