After Wall Street, European stock markets open in the red

After Tokyo’s collapse reported this morning, on Friday it is European stock markets’ turn to open lower, dragged down by Wall Street’s negative session on November 5. In New York the Nasdaq lost 5.5%, the S&P 500 4.4% and the Dow 3.4%, with selling concentrated on semiconductor, artificial intelligence and data center stocks — the same sector that had already shown signs of nervousness in previous days.

In Europe the worst-performing market is Frankfurt, down 2.2%. London follows, down two percentage points, while Paris and Amsterdam limit their losses to 1.6% and 1.2% respectively. The picture in Asia is no better: Asia-Pacific stock markets all closed lower, following Wall Street’s slide and concerns linked to the results of the U.S. midterm elections, which according to analysts could slow investment in data centers dedicated to artificial intelligence.

It is a concern that directly links the election result reported this morning to today’s market movements: not a simple technical setback for technology stocks, but an interpretation that intertwines Washington and Wall Street in the same reasoning about future investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure.

On the energy front the picture is different. European natural gas confirms its decline and loses 3%, falling to 88 euros per megawatt-hour. Oil, however, is moving more calmly, around 90 dollars a barrel, without showing the jolts that are hitting equity markets.

The contrast between the two markets — relatively stable energy commodities and sharply falling technology stocks — confirms that the ongoing correction remains concentrated in a specific sector, that linked to artificial intelligence and semiconductors, rather than reflecting a widespread deterioration in the global macroeconomic picture. It remains to be seen, in the coming sessions, whether the pressure on technology stocks will spread to other sectors or remain isolated.