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European markets looked poised to extend their losses on Wednesday morning, despite markets in Asia pulling back into the green, after a bruising sell-off had investors across the globe dumping their equity exposure.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 closed down just shy of 0.1 per cent on Tuesday, undershooting the bigger losses seen on Germany’s Dax at one per cent, France’s Cac 40 at 0.7 per cent and Amsterdam’s AEX at 1.6 per cent.
The City benefited from its lower tech exposure, after jitters around the industry led the sell-off. Over on Wall Street the tech-heavy Nasdaq slid 2.2 per cent as investors rushed to offload their exposure to the AI market. Alphabet – which boasts a market cap of over $4tn – was down 0.7 per cent. More drastic losses were seen across the semi-conductor stocks with memory chip maker Micron down over 13 per cent and components maker Seagate Technology down five per cent.
But Space X – which yesterday was being cited as the “culprit” for kicking off the sell-off after its bond sale – finished the day up one per cent higher.
New York’s broader index the S&P 500 finished down 1.4 per cent whilst the Dow Jones was broadly flat. “AI might have been the fuel that’s kept global stock markets fired up despite global instability, but the amount of cash flowing through all those tech companies has made some investors uncomfortable,” said Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell.
She added: “FOMO (Fear of missing out) was replaced with a fear of being burnt if the now expected chunky earnings numbers don’t continue to surge.”
The jitters were enough to offset positive new developments in talks between the US and Iran, with Trump’s Vice President JD Vance stating there was “good foundations” for a final peace deal.
The price of oil has also continued its move lower, with Brent crude slipping under $77 per barrel. This came as Donald Trump lashed out at big oil firms for “not dropping their price at the pump” meaning customers were “gouged”.
We’ll be bringing you the latest market updates and analysis.