European stocks fell sharply on Friday led by technology, which echoed a late-session selloff on Wall Street. Profit warnings in the renewables sector sent the shares of two Siemens subsidiaries tumbling.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index
SXXP,
fell 1.4% to 476.48, following a 0.5% gain on Thursday. The index is poised for a nearly 1% drop this week. The German DAX
DAX,
fell 1.4%, with a similar loss for the CAC 40
PX1,
while the FTSE 100 index
UKX,
dropped 1%.
U.S. stock indexes surrendered an early rebound to turn lower in Thursday’s final hour of trading, a repeat of Wednesday’s volatile session. The worst losses were seen for the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
which fell 1.3%, pushing further into correction territory.
Stocks have struggled at the start of the year amid a selloff in bonds as investors look ahead to tighter policy from Federal Reserve. The yield on the 10-year
TMUBMUSD10Y,
fell 1 basis point to 1.79%, while the yield on the German 10-year bund
TMBMKDE-10Y,
which pushed into positive territory for the first time in three years this week, slipped 1 basis point to negative 0.041%.
A bumpy start to earnings season has also added to the gloom, with Netflix
NFLX,
shares dropping 20% late Thursday, after the streaming giant’s subscriber number outlook fell far short of expectations. S&P 500 futures
ES00,
were pointing lower, while Nasdaq-100 futures
NQ00,
fell 0.6%.
While tech led the losses in Europe, few sectors showed any green. Among chip names in Europe, heavily weighted ASML Holding
ASML,
ASML,
dropped 3%, and ams
AMS,
shares fell 3%, while business software group SAP
SAP,
SAP,
was down 1.2%.
Energy names were under pressure as a risk-off mood hit oil prices
CL00,
BRN00,
and BP
BP,
BP,
and Royal Dutch Shell
RDS.A,
RDSA,
shares fell 1% each.
The renewables sector was getting hammered, after Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy
SGRE,
late Thursday cut its guidance for the fiscal year, swinging to an operating loss in the first quarter on continued supply-chain woes. Shares slumped 14%.
The warning from its Spanish subsidiary prompted Siemens Energy
ENR,
to lower its targets for fiscal 2022, and shares tumbled 10%. Those of rival Vestas Wind Systems
VWS,
dropped 6%.
Elsewhere, shares of Airbus
AIR,
dropped 1.5%, after the multinational aerospace corporation canceled a plane order from state-owned carrier Qatar as the two companies have been in dispute for months over surface degradation on A350 jets.
This post was originally published on Market Watch
