European stocks slid the most in a week

European stocks slid the most in a week after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the Obama administration will hold Syria accountable for using chemical weapons. U.S. index futures and Asian shares also fell.

Kerry denounced an attack on a suburb of Damascus last week, saying it required a response against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

In Germany, a report from showed that business confidence rose for a fourth month in August. The Ifo institute’s business-climate index, based on a survey of 7,000 executives, climbed to 107.5 from 106.2 in July. That exceeded the median estimate of 107 in a survey of economists.

Aker Solutions lost 1.4 percent to 89.35 kroner. The oil-services group controlled by billionaire Kjell Inge Roekke posted quarterly earnings of 0.44 kroner per share, missing the average analyst estimate of 0.728 kroner apiece.

ThyssenKrupp fell 3.2 percent to 15.81 euros. Nomura downgraded Germany’s largest steelmaker to neutral from buy. The brokerage said that the shares will probably not rally because the Brazilian real has depreciated against the euro. ThyssenKrupp’s Steel Americas unit owns a steel mill in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro.

Peugeot gained 2.7 percent to 11.66 euros. UBS upgraded the shares to buy from neutral, citing stabilizing volume in Europe and faster-than-expected restructuring.

FTSE 100 6,455.91 -36.19 -0.56%

CAC 40 4,013.48 -53.65 -1.32%

DAX 8,318.32 -116.83 -1.39%