This is CNBC’s live blog covering European markets.
European markets are expected to open in mixed territory Wednesday as global jitters over artificial intelligence tech rivalry between the U.S. and China ease.
The U.K.’s FTSE 100 index is expected to open 1 point higher at 8,538, Germany’s DAX up 46 points at 21,490, France’s CAC down 16 points at 7,897 and Italy’s FTSE MIB up 74 points at 36,406, according to data from IG.
Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML on Wednesday reported better-than-expected net sales and profit for the fourth quarter. Net bookings, a key indicator of order demand, rose 169% from the previous quarter. CNBC will be speaking to the firm’s CEO Christophe Fouquet on “Squawk Box Europe” just after 7 a.m. London time.
The world’s largest luxury company LVMH also outperformed sales forecasts in earnings published after the market close Tuesday.
Sweden’s Riksbank publishes its latest monetary policy decision later this morning.
Other data releases include Germany’s GfK consumer confidence, Spain’s latest quarterly gross domestic product data and Italian business and consumer confidence data.
European stocks closed higher Tuesday, in the wake of a global market sell-off fueled by concerns over a potential AI breakthrough in China. The emergent and unexpected success of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek had sparked concerns over U.S. tech giants’ global leadership.
On Tuesday, all eyes were on Nvidia‘s stock, which picked up momentum to close nearly 9% higher. The chipmaker lost 17%, or almost $600 billion in market value, in the previous session to clock the biggest ever one-day drop in value for a U.S. company.
Global market attention turns to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s first interest rate decision of 2025 on Wednesday.
Fed funds futures data reflect a nearly 100% certainty that the central bank will keep rates steady at a target range of 4.25% to 4.50%, according to CME Group data. Nonetheless, the decision, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference afterward, will be closely watched for more clues on the outlook for interest rates this year.
Critical chip firm ASML posts quarterly bookings surge on heated AI demand
Dutch semiconductor giant ASML on Wednesday reported a big jump in fourth-quarter net bookings, suggesting strong demand for its advanced chipmaking tools even as DeepSeek’s low-cost model raises concerns over AI spending.
Here’s how ASML did versus LSEG consensus estimates for the fourth quarter:
- Net sales: 9.26 billion euros versus 9.07 billion euros expected.
- Net profit: 2.69 billion euros versus 2.64 billion euros expected.
— Ryan Browne
Broad indexes would suffer in 2025 if tech falters, but average stock hold up, Capital Economics says
Broad stock market indexes would suffer in 2025 if Big Tech leaders continue to falter but the average stock is likely to “hold up well,” according to Capital Economics senior markets economist James Reilly.
Although the S&P 500 Information Technology Index slid 5.5% Monday, its largest one-day decline since 2020, “the losses were largely confined to firms that had been expected to play a key role in facilitating AI, including semiconductor firms and utilities firms powering data centers,” London-based Capital Economics said, noting the S&P 500 only fell 1.5% and roughly 70% of companies in the index rose.
One possibility is that investors will start to favor more of the users of artificial intelligence and fewer of the “enablers,” which may have already begun before Monday, Reilly wrote. “In this scenario, the S&P 500 could rally further even as sentiment towards these prior favorites cooled. Indeed, something similar happened during the dotcom bubble — there was a rotation within the I.T. sector (from the largest firms) around 1999/2000 that didn’t undermine the S&P 500 index.”
Strangely, the large share of the market accounted for by the 10 biggest stocks offers some hope. “That might mean that the losses as these gains unwound would be similarly concentrated, affording plenty of scope for the average firm in the S&P 500 to do well if the economic backdrop stayed positive, as we expect,” Reilly noted.
— Scott Schnipper
European markets: Here are the opening calls
European markets are expected to open in mixed territory Wednesday.
The U.K.’s FTSE 100 index is expected to open 1 point higher at 8,538, Germany’s DAX up 46 points at 21,490, France’s CAC down 16 points at 7,897 and Italy’s FTSE MIB up 74 points at 36,406, according to data from IG.
Earnings come from ASML, Volvo, WH Smith and AkzoNobel and Sweden’s Riksbank publishes its latest monetary policy decision later this morning.
— Holly Ellyatt
