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April 16 Reuters Europe39;s main stock index fell to a near sixweek low on Tuesday as investors stayed clear of risky assets amid tensions in the Middle East, while Ericsson jumped following upbeat earnings.

The panEuropean STOXX 600 fell 1.4 as of 0846 GMT, dragged by a 3 drop in the basic resources sector. The main index was on track for its worst day in almost nine months.

The main indexes of Germany, France, Italy and Spain shed between 1.4 and 1.8, tracking a global risk off mood as the world awaited Israel39;s response to Iran39;s firstever direct attack against the country.

All of the other factors have now been put on second level, and focus now is on escalation of risk coming from this conflict in the Middle East, said Daniela Hathorn, senior market analyst at Capital.com.

We39;ve also got earnings season expected to show a little bit more weakness than they have in the past.

The STOXX 600 rallied since late 2023 to hit a record high in February on the back of lower interest rate expectations, with investors confident of a rate cut by the European Central Bank in June.

Still, ECB policymaker Olli Rehn said that prospects for an interest rate cut in June assume that there will be no further setbacks in the geopolitical situation that affect energy prices and thus…