LONDON – On Friday, European technology stocks fell to their lowest level in over six months amid a broad global equity sell-off and as investors dumped semiconductor stocks following disappointing earnings from Intel.
The STOXX Europe 600 technology index was last down 3.6% to its lowest since January. The broader STOXX 600 index index was down 1.3%.
Shares in chipmaker Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) slumped 20% premarket after the company suspended its dividend and said it would cut 15% of its workforce as it grapples with a pullback in spending on traditional data center semiconductors and a focus on AI chips.
That helped push European peers lower, with ASM International, BE Semiconductor, and ASML (NASDAQ: ASML) all shedding between 6.6% and 9.2%.
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) shares are also down around 8 in premarket trading after reporting slowing online sales growth.
Global equity markets tumbled worldwide, with the S&P 500 ending Thursday’s session down 1.4%.
Tech stocks tumbled in Asia earlier in the day, contributing to a 5.8% fall in Japan’s Nikkei, and a 3.65% drop in Korea’s KOSPI benchmark.
(Source: Reuters)
Kevin Putnam is a financial journalist and editor based in New York. He specializes in editing news and analysis related to U.S. stock market.
