Connor Campbell, financial analyst at trading platform Spreadex, says:

All this comes after a stellar Monday session in the US, one that saw the Nasdaq hit an all-time high and the Dow Jones reach a 15-week peak.

Those long- and short-term records, however, may well have inspired Tuesday’s losses. Investors might be questioning the wisdom of such highs in a world still very firmly in the middle of a pandemic.

Gold – regarded as a safe-haven investment – is climbing for a second day, as stock markets are sliding. Spot gold gained 1.2% to $1,715 an ounce.

Last Friday, gold fell to $1,670, the lowest level in more than a month, after the surprise 2.5m jump in US jobs in May sparked a strong rally in stocks.

However, other precious metals are not in demand – silver lost 1.4% and palladium was down 5.05%. Palladium is used in autocatalysts and demand from the car industry has fallen because of the coronavirus crisis.

Gareth Baker, energy partner at the law firm Gowling WLG, says:

With the continuing reduction in commercial and industrial demand caused by COVID-19, combining with high wind speeds and sunny days, coal was always going to be the loser in our energy mix. Whilst this is part of a long-term trend, the system has coped with the substantial increase in renewable generation remarkably well.

The next challenge is how the network balances and manages intermittency and energy storage has to become a substantial part of the solution.

In a more positive milestone, Britain will tomorrow reach two consecutive months without using electricity from coal-fired power stations for the first time since the industrial revolution in the 19th century, according to the National Grid, Reuters reports.

Britain opened its first coal plant in the 1880s and coal became the main source of electricity over the next century. But coal plants emit almost double the amount of carbon dioxide (which is blamed for global warming) as gas-fired power plants, and use of (near) zero carbon sources such as wind and solar is steadily growing.

The UK intends to shut its coal plants by 2024 as part of efforts to hit its net zero emissions goal by 2050.

France also released trade data this morning. Exports fared even worse than in Germany, falling by 32% in April from March, compared with a 25% drop in imports.

However, business surveys from the Banque de France showed a rebound in sentiment in industry, services and construction in May, roughly offsetting a third of the loss recorded since February, noted Oxford Economics analyst Moritz Degler.

Turning to the eurozone GDP figures, he said:

With lockdowns only introduced around mid-March and extended through April and some of May in most countries, it is clear that Q2 growth will be hit much harder than Q1. We expect eurozone GDP to decline 11% q/q in Q2 before starting to recover in Q3.

The Fed will issue economic forecasts for the first time since December at the end of its meeting tomorrow, but is not expected make any major policy announcements.

The central bank’s policy makers will discuss the unexpectedly strong employment data released last Friday, which showed a surprise gain of more than 2.5m jobs last month while the unemployment rate fell.

The Covid-19 pandemic prompted the Fed to cut interest rates to near zero and to launch a number of credit programmes to prop up the economy at emergency meetings in March, but no major moves are expected tomorrow. It will release its policy statement at 2pm EDT (7pm BST), followed by a news conference with Fed chair Jerome Powell.

Customers of the holiday letting company that owns Hoseasons and Cottages.com have reason to be cheerful. Vacation Rentals has agreed to give customers refunds for stays that were cancelled because of the coronavirus crisis, after it was reported to the competition watchdog, Joanna Partridge reports.

Vacation Rentals, which has a range of holiday brands and accommodation websites, including Welcome Cottages and Landal GreenParks, had originally refused to give money back to customers.

The outlook for UK jobs is the gloomiest in almost three decades, according to the latest employment survey by recruitment firm ManpowerGroup, writes my colleague Joanna Partridge.

It found that companies in all big sectors of the economy are more likely to cut jobs than to hire people over the next three months, from July to September, the weakest forecast since records began in 1992.

The survey comes as companies prepare to start weaning themselves off the government’s furlough scheme, which covers the wage bill of almost 9 million workers.

Mark Harris, chief executive of mortgage broker SPF Private Clients, said the impact of the coronavirus pandemic had not yet been felt in that period.

The share of mortgages advanced to borrowers requiring a loan-to-value greater than 90% was 5.2%, an increase on the previous year, illustrating the level of demand for high LTV deals.

With lenders including Accord, Clydesdale and Virgin Money pulling out of the 90% LTV market this week owing to high demand, after only recently returning when physical valuations were once again allowed, there is clearly a need for the big lenders to commit to this market.

The number of people taking out high LTV mortgages in the second quarter is likely to fall considerably, not due to lack of demand but lack of products available.

The latest mortgage lending data from the Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority showed:

• The outstanding value of all residential mortgages loans was £1,509bn at the end of 2020 Q1, 3.9% higher than a year earlier.
• The value of gross mortgage advances in 2020 Q1 was £65.8bn, 3.8% higher than in 2019 Q1.
• The value of new mortgage commitments (lending agreed to be advanced in the coming months) was 6.1% higher than a year earlier, at £67.6bn.

Back in the UK, the government saw near-record demand for its new 30-year bond. It sold £9bn of the October 2050 gilts, which pay a coupon of 0.625%.

It received more than £70bn in demand, not far off the record £84bn in orders last month when it sold a new 10-year gilt, Reuters reported.

While the eurozone GDP number is slightly better than expected, European stock markets continue to slide after last week’s rally.

• UK’s FTSE 100 index down 92 points, or 1.4%
• Germany’s Dax down 2.o8%
• France’s CAC down 1.89%
• Italy’s FTSE MiB down 1.89%

US stock futures are pointing to a lower open on Wall Street later. The Dow futures are down about 1% while the Nasdaq futures are 0.5% lower.

The number of people employed fell by 0.2% in the first quarter compared with the previous quarter, marking the first decline since the spring of 2013, according to Eurostat figures.

France, Italy and Spain were the worst hit economies, the GDP stats show.

The sharpest declines were in trade, transport, hotels and restaurants, followed by the arts and entertainment industries. Agriculture posted the smallest fall, of 0.8%.

European stock markets are extending losses.

• UK’s FTSE 100 down 1.6%, or 102 points, at 6,370
• Germany’s Dax down 1.25%
• France’s CAC down 1.39%
• Italy’s FTSE MiB down 2.07%

Oil prices are heading lower as well. Brent crude has lost 30 cents to $40.54 a barrel, a 0.6% drop, while US light crude is 35 cents lower at $37.84, a 0.9% decline.

Relief that the Opec oil cartel and its allies extended production cuts into July has given way to disappointment that Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil producer, along with the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, hasn’t committed to extra supply cuts.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index is down 0.27%, dragged lower by banking stocks, which have fallen 4% after six days of gains.

In London, British American Tobacco, down 2.4%, is weighing on the FTSE 100. The maker of Dunhill and Lucky Strike cigarettes cut its annual profit and revenue forecasts this morning. It pointed to longer-than-expected Covid-19 lockdowns in South Africa, Mexico and Argentina, and said sales had also been hit by the pandemic in countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam and Malaysia.

Faced with a long-term decline in traditional cigarette sales, the world’s second-biggest tobacco group is pushing into vapour and oral products such as moist snuff, but said some new product launches had been delayed. It now aims to achieve £5bn in sales from these new categories in 2025, rather than 2023-24.

Bellway, one of the UK’s biggest housebuilders, said that it sold 6,721 homes between the start of August and the end of May, nearly 1,000 fewer than in the year-earlier period. Its shares fell nearly 3%.

Like other builders, the company temporarily shut its sites at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, but work has restarted on 230 sites and all sales offices reopened on 1 June.

Productivity is reduced (because of physical distancing and other safety rules) and work is still limited to homes which are nearing completion. Bellway expects to slowly increase the number of completions through the late summer and autumn months.

Its order book comprises 6,038 homes, down slightly from 6,312 homes this time last year, although the value has edged up to £1.57bn. Bellway’s bigger rival Taylor Wimpey said last week it saw interest from customers surge when its sales centres and show homes reopened.

Germany’s Dax has dipped into negative territory while the FTSE 100 in London is down nearly 30 points, or 0.45%, at 6,443.

Germany’s Ifo institute says that 24% of companies it polled needed liquidity aid in May to help them get through the coronavirus crisis, the same proportion as in April.

European shares are mixed at the open. The FTSE 100 index in London is down some 15 points, or 0.2%, at 6,458, and Spain’s Ibex also slipped 0.2%. Germany’s Dax is up 0.3%, France’s CAC gained 0.2% and Italy’s FTSE MiB has opened 0.16% higher.

The only upside from this morning’s German trade numbers is that in terms of monthly economic data, the worst should now be behind us, says Carsten Brzeski, chief eurozone and global economist at ING.

In the midst of the financial crisis, it took German exports five months to shrink by a total of 26%. In the Covid-19 crisis it only took the month of April to get practically the same result. In March and April, exports have now shrunk by almost 36%. The export sector is probably the most exposed to the crisis, suffering from the domestic lockdown measures as much as from lockdowns across the world and supply chain disruptions.

Looking ahead, while April was the worst month ever in terms of most economic data releases, the month of May could become one of the best months ever.

With the worst now behind us, things will start to brighten. In past recoveries, the German economy could always count on exports to kickstart the recovery. After the 2008/9 crisis, it was the Asian countries and strong demand for German investment goods which helped the German economy to overcome the recession swiftly. This time around, the economy will have to look to something other than exports to stimulate growth.