European Midday Briefing: Stocks Lower as U.S. Tech Moneymakers Stumble

MARKET WRAPS

Stocks:

European shares fell as renewed selling in AI stocks dragged, though some positive earnings stories drove single-stock gains.

The FTSE index was an outlier, rising as energy stocks climbed with the oil price, and in Paris the CAC pushed into the green as drugmaker Sanofi rose more than 5%.

ASML dropped more than 5% after Intel--a major customer--forecast a prolonged slowdown in computer sales.

However Danske Bank said relative equity performance had clearly favored European markets as the U.S. tech sector continued its decline.

Oil prices were rising and Ukraine struck an oil refinery in Russia early Friday, ending a two-week pause in refinery attacks that came amid heavy pressure from the Trump administration.

U.S. Markets:

The tech selloff was intensifying after results from Amazon and Intel compounded worries around the AI trade.

in premarket trading Amazon was down sharply, Intel fell nearly 25% and AI-related stocks including Nvidia, Oracle and CoreWeave were in the red.

Treasury yields rallied into the close of the week, tracking weakness in the tech sector.

Earnings ware expected from Canadian National Railway; Chevron; ExxonMobil, Kenvue, Regeneron, AbbVie, General Dynamics and Colgate-Palmolive.

Forex:

The euro fell to a 19-month low against sterling and traded near a four-month low versus the Swiss franc on worries about France's debt and the ECB's cautious stance about raising interest rates, while the BOE is widely expected to raise rates in November.

The DXY index fell. The dollar's biggest risk Friday is the potential for investors to unwind bets on the currency strengthening ahead of Tuesday's U.S. midterm elections, ING said.

Bonds:

Treasury yields fell. Yields are expected to remain rangebound in the near term, with the 10-year yield trading mostly near 5% in the coming weeks, SEB said.

Government bond yields of fiscally weak eurozone countries-France, Belgium and Italy-rose while others fell.

Core bond yields-such as the German and Dutch-were lower in line with declining Treasury yields which hit multiweek lows.

Data showing France's economy contracted in the third quarter deepened concerns over the government's debt load amid enduring political paralysis.

SocGen said Eurozone government bond yield spreads had consolidated a bit from their recent highs, but investors remained cautious, awaiting greater clarity or better entry levels.

Spillovers from France-specific moves to other eurozone government bonds were getting smaller, it added.

"We are far from a broader euro-area sovereign shock."

Meanwhile, the cost of default protection for French government bonds was steady but remained high due to concerns about France's debt sustainability.

Energy:

Oil rose, driven by persistent threats to shipping in the Hormuz Strait and fears that the U.S. could resume military strikes against Iran.

"Oil prices will continue to see an upside skew until there is clarity on the geopolitical conditions in the Middle East, with the period following next week's U.S. midterms in focus for a potential deterioration in regional security," MUFG said.

Gas

European natural-gas prices climbed back above EUR100 a megawatt-hour, driven by fears of escalating tensions in the Middle East and colder temperatures in northwest Europe.

Gas storage inflows have stalled as the heating season kicks off, with tanks only 74.9% full.

"The key question is whether these higher prices will destroy demand," ING said.

Metals:

Gold slid below $4,000 as higher oil prices and sticky inflation fueled expectations that the Fed would raise interest rates again later this year and a tech-stock selloff raised the risk of investors offloading the metal to cover losses.

"Heading into the weekend, traders will watch whether the U.S. technology sector selloff extends into today's session, potentially triggering broader deleveraging and liquidity-driven selling across markets, including precious metals," Saxo said.

Copper

Jefferies said that we would start to see further premiums paid for lower-risk mining methods after a pause in operations at Rio Tinto's Oyu Tolgoi copper mine.

While Jefferies said it was unlikely to have a long-term impact on production there, the event raised questions about the long-term sustainable rate of cave propagation.

Lithium

Lithium carbonate was down more than 20% since early September and spodumene concentrate was down by nearly 40%. Benchmarked said that outside of China there was a feeling that this was a short-term, sentiment-led dip, unsupported by fundamentals.

EMEA HEADLINES

BP Slashes Net Debt as Earnings Soar

BP's profit almost quadrupled and cash flow jumped, enabling the British energy major to cut net debt faster than expected.

The company reported a third-quarter underlying replacement-cost profit-a similar metric to the net income that U.S. oil companies report-of $8.46 billion. This compares with the $2.21 billion it reported in the same period last year and the $7.33 billion analysts expected, according to a company-compiled consensus.

Eurozone Economy Slows as French Debt Worries Mount

The eurozone economy slowed in the third quarter as the war between the U.S. and Iran kept energy prices high, while France's economy contracted, deepening concerns over the government's debt load amid enduring political paralysis.

Economic activity in the 21-nation currency area grew more strongly than expected in the early months of the war, but that resilience appears to be fading as the period of high energy prices seems likely to extend into 2027. Rising government bond yields, which also lift borrowing costs for households and businesses, are an additional drag on growth.

BOE Survey Points to Faster Price Rises, But Slowing Wage Growth

U.K. businesses polled in October expected to raise their prices at a slightly faster pace than in the previous month, but wage increases were seen slowing, according to a Bank of England survey released Friday.

Some 1,945 chief financial officers were questioned between Oct. 2 and 16, with energy prices having remained high since the start of the war between the U.S. and Iran in late February.

Universal Music Shares Climb After Streaming Revenue Beats Expectations

Universal Music Group shares leapt after the music company showed signs of a recovery in a closely watched streaming-revenue metric, with a better-than-expected result for the third quarter.

Shares in UMG climbed as much as 15% in European morning trading Friday. If sustained until close, this would be the stock's biggest ever one-day percentage rise, according to FactSet data.

AstraZeneca Launches $1.5 Billion Savings Plan to Fund Drug Pipeline

AstraZeneca said it is launching a $1.5 billion cost-savings program, as the U.K. drugmaker seeks to free up resources to invest in its drug pipeline.

The company disclosed the plan on Friday alongside its third-quarter results, which showed increases in revenue and profit after strong sales of cancer drugs offset the effect of patent expirations to lift the group's top line.

GLOBAL NEWS

Cryptocurrencies Pare Losses After $6.3 Billion Hack Spooks Markets

Cryptocurrencies pared losses following a dramatic drop at the start of the Asia session, sparked by news of what is likely to be the biggest-ever crypto heist.

Bitcoin and Ethereum clawed back some ground Friday after tumbling over 3% each in the wake of news that Binance, the world's biggest crypto exchange, suspended transactions to investigate a major security breach.

Chinese Executive Close to Nvidia CEO Suspected of Giving China Information

Officials in the U.S., Singapore and Taiwan have grown concerned that a data-center industry executive with close ties to Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang is a Chinese intelligence source, potentially giving Beijing access to information about the world's most valuable artificial-intelligence chips.

U.S. officials last year concluded that Chinese citizen Alice Huang, then a top executive at Megaspeed International, was sharing information with the Chinese government while working with Nvidia to build data centers in Asia, people familiar with the matter said. Huang, who also goes by Huang Le, isn't related to the Nvidia CEO.

Trump Administration, States Harden Battle Lines Ahead of Election Day

WASHINGTON-State election officials and the Trump administration are eyeing one another with extreme suspicion ahead of Tuesday's midterms, after months of hostile interactions over the procedures for how Americans vote.

Before the first ballots have been counted, the federal government is already initiating litigation contesting the results. In California, the Justice Department is pressing forward with its third attempt in recent days to force the state to set aside up to 20,000 ballots returned by people the administration says are "likely noncitizens." And on Thursday, top federal prosecutors sent subpoenas to state and local officials as part of a criminal probe into allegations of illegal voting, according to people familiar with the matter.

Inside the U.S. Military's Open-Ended Mission to Keep Gulf Oil Flowing

ABOARD THE USS GEORGE WASHINGTON IN THE ARABIAN SEA-Under the cover of darkness, American jet fighters loaded with air-to-air missiles catapult off the deck of the aircraft carrier USS George Washington and make their way toward the Strait of Hormuz to shoot down Iranian cruise missiles and drones aimed at commercial ships.

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October 30, 2026 07:18 ET (11:18 GMT)