Major stock indexes in Europe down

European stocks posted the biggest three-day drop since November as airlines slumped amid bird flu concerns and investors awaited a report on American payrolls. U.S. index futures fell, while Asian shares climbed.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index (SXXP) slipped 0.4 percent to 290.52 at 10:11 a.m. in London, extending its drop in the past three days to 2.4 percent as U.S. data on jobless-benefit claims and service-industry growth fell short of forecasts.

IAG led a gauge of travel companies in the Stoxx 600 to a one-month low, falling 4.8 percent to 240.2 pence. The death toll in China from the new bird flu strain, known as H7N9, rose to six people.

EasyJet Plc retreated 4 percent to 1,053 pence, the biggest drop in 13 months, even as Europe’s second-largest discount airline cut its first-half pretax loss forecast amid a surge in late bookings for Easter.

Iberdrola climbed 3.6 percent to 3.79 euros after Bank of America Corp. raised its recommendation for the Spanish utility to buy from neutral, citing an “attractive risk-reward profile.”

Drax increased 1.5 percent to 623.5 pence after HSBC Holdings Plc upgraded the owner of the U.K.’s largest coal-fired plant to overweight, the equivalent of a buy rating.

To date:

FTSE 100 6,304.43 -39.69 -0.63%

CAC 40 3,715.24 -10.92 -0.29%

DAX 7,799.16 -18.23 -0.23%