Europe close: Tech and Oil & Gas pace losses as investors play it safe

That was even as investors continued to keep a wary eye on European politics, with the spotlight currently on Italy and Spain.

Also weighing on sentiment, news surfaced overnight that the US might be mulling placing curbs on exports of 'dual use' high-technology products to China, although late in the session White House National Economic Council director, Larry Kudlow, sounded a rather optimistic note on the outlook for progress in trade talks with Beijing.

Commenting on the price action on Tuesday, IG's Josh Mahony said: "Yet another day of hard selling has taken hold throughout Europe and the US today, with all major US stock indices now trading in the red for year.

"Tech has been a major focus for short sellers of late, with high valuations ensuring that they become a target given their apparently bloated share-prices. Fears over the US-China relationship seemed to have lessened of late, yet with a combination of fears over a peak in iPhone sales coupled with a pessimistic outlook from Mike Pence, it comes as no surprise to see recent optimism fade."

By the end of trading, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was down by 1.14% or 4.05 points to 351.06, alongside a fall of 1.58% or 178.13 points to 11,066.41 for the German Dax while the FTSE Mibtel was declining by 1.87% or 351.75 points to 18,471.38.

Linked to the latter, 10-year Italian government notes rallied, erasing early losses and pushing yields back down to 3.62% after hitting an intra-day high of 3.72%.

That followed a round of heavy selling the day before as investors positioned for a possible European Commission announcement, on Wednesday, that it would open an excessive deficit procedure against Rome.

Technology stocks fared worst, with the Stoxx 600's sector gauge down by 1.97% at 395.77, while that for Oil&Gas fell by 1.51% to 317.70 on the back of a very sharp drop in crude oil futures.

Front month Brent crude oil futures meanwhile were getting pumeled, dropping 6.37% to $62.79 a barrel on the ICE.

Stateside, the S&P 500 was flirting with entering so-called 'correction territory' after falling by 10% from its 20 September highs to 2,633 at one point during the session.

Regarding Spain meanwhile, analysts at Rabobank noted talk in the local press that the minority Socialist government might be tempted to call early elections, likely for May 2019, so they would coincide with municipal, regional and European elections.

Local elections were scheduled in the southern region of Andalucia for 2 December.

In the background, Bitcoin was slumping 10.08% to $4,549.94.

On the company front, Deutsche Bank was a standout faller following allegations that its US unit may have chaneled roughly $150bn-worth of suspect funds for Danske Bank.

Shares of Renault added to their losses from the prior session.

Stock in BASF was also lower even after it announced a revamp that was meant to boost the chemical giant's bottom line by €2bn from 2021.

The economic data calendar was rather light on Tuesday.

According to INSEE, French unemployment was steady during the third quarter in comparison to the prior three-month stretch at 9.1% (consensus: 9.0%).

Over in Germany, the Federal Office of Statistics reported an acceleration in the rate of gain in factory prices from a 3.2% pace year-on-year for September to 3.3% in October, as expected by the consensus.

Still ahead for later in the day, the Belgian central bank was due to publish its consumer confidence index for the month of November, at 1400 GMT.

Stateside meanwhile, at 1330 GMT the National Association of Realtors was scheduled to publish housing starts and permits data for the month of October.