European Stocks plunge

Sell in May and go away? Apparently in 2012 we should say sell in April and avoid the peril.
European Stocks plunged today due to a mix of concerning news and events.
French presidential elections showed voters are more inclined to a less restrictive economic policy and (former?) President Sarkozy has clearly lost the first turn of the elections; as showed by polls in the last months Mr. Hollande is the favorite, a big surprise was the rise of the votes for Mrs. Le Pen.
Dutch Parliament faces problems approving laws to reinforce fiscal and spending austerity and Government resigned during the weekend.
German "Purchasing Manager Index Manufacturing" falls way below expectations (46.3 - 49.0 expected), Italian Consumer Confidence and French Business Confidence also fell below expectations. Particularly worries about the Italian data which fell  7.2 points below expectations; the austerity measures implemented by Prime Minister Mario Monti are starting to affect the real economy and recession is now called out even by more optimistic economists even though they keep calling it a mere technical recession without realizing that the recession is more structural than technical.
Chinese HSBC Flash Manufacturing PMI for April shows during the European night little signs of improvement as it record at 49.1 (a reading above 50.0 has to be considered positive showing expansion and a reading below 50.0 has to be considered negative showing recession) even though is above March reading of 48.3


Here are some more numbers about the European carnage:


 DAX                    -3.36% 
 CAC 40              -2.83%  
 EU Stoxx 50      -2.87%
 UK 100              -1.85%
  ITA 40               - 3.83%
Datas provided by Forexpros