European stocks are weakening today, dragged down before noon mainly by aircraft manufacturer Airbus, which on Monday worsened its economic outlook. Technology stocks are also posting losses, reacting to Monday’s sell-off on Wall Street. The pan-European STOXX Europe 600 stock index was losing about 0.3 percent before midday and was just above 517 points.
Airbus is struggling
Airbus was writing off more than 10 percent. Europe’s largest airline group said it was cutting its full-year outlook, including aircraft deliveries and profit-making. Along with Airbus, manufacturers of industrial goods and services headed lower. Their sub-index thus lost 1.5 percent.
Also writing off 1.5 percent were technology titles, led by firms tied to chipmakers. They reacted to a sharp drop in the share price of US chipmaker Nvidia, which has weakened 16 per cent since last Thursday, reducing its market value by $550 billion.
Focus on France
Shares in German pharmaceutical company Merck KGaA lost nearly nine per cent. The drugmaker said it had stopped testing a drug called xevinapant for advanced head and neck cancer.
Market attention will continue to focus on the first round of French parliamentary elections later this week. The chief executive of Paris-based exchange operator Euronext said the prospect of an extremist party with little or no experience of governing coming to power was worrying investors.
Source: Czech Press Office
