European tech stocks fall to six-month low, join in global sell-off

LONDON (Reuters) – European technology stocks fell to their lowest level in over six months on Friday, amid a broad global equity sell-off and as investors dumped semiconductor stocks following disappointing earnings from Intel.

The STOXX Europe 600 technology index was last down 3.6% to its lowest since January. The broader STOXX 600 index index was down 1.3%.

Shares in chipmaker Intel slumped 20% premarket after the company suspended its dividend and said it would cut 15% of its workforce as it grapples with a pullback in spending on traditional data center semiconductors and a focus on AI chips.

That helped push European peers lower, with ASM International, BE Semiconductor and ASML all shedding between 6.6% and 9.2%.

Amazon shares are also down around 8 in premarket trading after reporting slowing online sales growth.

Global equity markets tumbled around the globe, with the S&P 500 ending Thursday’s session down 1.4%. [.N]

Tech stocks tumbled in Asia earlier in the day, contributing to a 5.8% fall in Japan’s Nikkei, and a 3.65% drop in Korea’s KOSPI benchmark.[.T] [.KS]

(Reporting by Samuel Indyk, editing by Alun John)