Global stock markets declined on Wednesday, driven by a wave of profit-taking on major tech stocks and a renewed surge in inflation in the UK. With investors awaiting Jerome Powell’s highly anticipated speech at the Jackson Hole symposium at the end of the week, nervousness dominated trading.
Tuesday’s close in New York set the tone, with the Nasdaq falling 1.46% on the back of a widespread correction among tech giants. Nvidia, a symbol of the frenzy surrounding artificial intelligence, plunged 3.5%, while Microsoft (-1.42%), Tesla (-1.75%) and Amazon (-1.5%) also lost ground.
This downturn spread to Asian markets as soon as they opened : Japan’s Nikkei ended down 1.51%, Seoul’s Kospi index lost 0.68% and the MSCI Asia Pacific ex-Japan index fell 0.74%.
Europe followed suit : at midday in Paris, even if the CAC 40 was up 0.18%, Frankfurt lost 0.68%, London 0.11% and Milan 0.40%. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index fell 0.26%.
Technology and UK inflation cause concern
The European technology sector has been hardest hit by this decline : STMicroelectronics (-1.3%), Soitec (-1.75%), Infineon (-1.53%) and ASML (-0.78%) were among the biggest fallers in morning trading.
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