Europe open: Shares tumble after tech sell-off on Wall Street
European shares fell from record highs as a sharp sell-off in tech stocks on Wall Street and weaker Asian markets spooked investors amid fears of rising inflation.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index fell 1.7% at the opening with all regional bourses lower. The UK FTSE 100 was down almost 2% at 0851BST.
"Ahead of Wednesday’s US CPI reading, it appears that investors’ inflationary fears have been reignited by surging commodity prices (something that won’t necessarily be reflected in tomorrow’s figures). It’ll be interesting to see how much the markets are reassured if Wednesday’s number does fall from 0.6% to 0.2% month-on-month as forecast," said Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell.
"At present the Dow Jones is expected to avoid the same level of losses as Europe, with the futures indicating a 0.4%, or 145-point, decline. That would leave the Dow around 20 points above 34,600."
In equity news, Sweden’s Evolution Gaming Group plunged 10% after the bookrunner announced the pricing of block trades.
UK bank NatWest was also sharply lower after the government kicked off the sale of a further stake in the bank.
British supermarket Morrisons bucked the trend as it reported a rise in first-quarter sales and reiterated guidance for higher full-year profits and reduced debt as the economy rebounded from the Covid-19 pandemic.