The sell-off has spread to Europe: How did the EU and U.K. markets open?

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index fell 1.5% at the opening of trading on November 6. All of its sectors were in the red, but media companies are showing the weakest performance. Utilities and telecommunications stocks have suffered the smallest losses: they have more defensive characteristics and typically outperform the market when investors are risk-averse, Bloomberg notes.

Germany's DAX fell 1.6%, and France's CAC 40 fell 1.4%.

The British FTSE 100 fell by about 1.6%. This index is often shielded from declines by a small proportion of tech stocks, but today it is under pressure from mining stocks, which carry significant weight in the index, amid falling gold prices. A sell-off in tech stocks in Asia has forced investors to sell gold to cover losses in other assets, Bloomberg explains.

So far, Europe has managed to weather the sell-off better than most other markets, the agency reports. It predicts that losses will remain less severe than in the U.S. Until recently, the Stoxx 600 was among the laggards: investors shunned it due to its vulnerability to rising oil prices and a lack of tech companies benefiting from the AI boom. Now, the combination of stable industrial companies, banks, and reliable representatives of defensive sectors—supplemented by a significant share of commodity companies—is proving its value, according to Bloomberg.

Dirk Viller, head of global macroeconomic research at Citigroup, said he prefers European stocks over U.S. stocks because “pressure on AI investments may persist for now,” according to Bloomberg. His choice is also linked to the ongoing weakness in global oil prices, which, according to the analyst, is supporting Europe. However, “of course, if the sell-off in the U.S. becomes too widespread, European stocks won’t be able to rise either,” he warned.

This news story is being updated.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor