European equity markets were set to open sharply lower on Friday, as a deepening global stock selloff gathered pace. The downturn has been fueled by mounting concerns over tighter regulation of the artificial intelligence sector and a potential slowdown in data center investment, following a decisive Democratic victory in the US midterm elections.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite has already fallen into correction territory, and losses have broadened across all sectors on Wall Street. AI-related stocks in South Korea and Japan have also posted steep declines, underscoring how investor anxiety is reverberating through global markets.
In Europe, traders will be watching a series of key data releases for further economic clues, including the latest UK house price index, French trade figures, and Eurozone retail sales. On the corporate side, earnings updates are scheduled from ENGIE, Daimler Truck, International Airlines Group, Amadeus IT, and Mediobanca, among others.
In premarket trading, futures on both the Euro Stoxx 50 and the Stoxx 600 were down by roughly 1%.
