European stocks rebound following Wall Street tech sell-off
European stocks rebounded on Monday following last week’s sell-off of technology stocks on Wall Street.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index (^STOXX) rose by around 1%, while London’s FTSE 100 (^FTSE) climbed by more than 1.4%.
Germany’s DAX (^GDAXI) rose by around 1.3%, while France’s CAC 40 (^FCHI) was up by around 1.2%.
Tech stocks led a stock market rout in the US last week, as investors began to turn away from the clear equity leaders from the past several months.
The Financial Times on Friday reported that Japan’s Softbank was the “Nasdaq whale” that “stoked the fevered rally in big tech stocks.”
READ MORE: Nasdaq posts worst week since March as tech shares slide
The Wall Street Journal reported that SoftBank spent around $4bn (£3bn) buying call options on stocks, leaving the market vulnerable to a disorderly equities sell-off.
“Today should in theory be quiet-ish due to the US Labor Day holiday. However, the market will be trying to come to terms with last week’s late tech rout that at one point saw the Nasdaq down circa 10% in a little over 24 hours between the open on Thursday and early trading on Friday,” said analysts at Deutsche Bank.
Stocks in Asia struggled for direction on Monday despite better-than-expected export data from China. Exports of Chinese-made goods rose by 8.5% in August, the biggest monthly gain since March 2019.
Shanghai’s SSE Composite Index (^SSEC) fell by more than 1.8%, while the Hang Seng (^HSI) closed more than 0.5% in the red in Hong Kong.
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Japan’s Nikkei (^N225) fell by 0.5%, with shares in Softbank (9984.T) declining more than 7%.
The KOSPI Composite Index (^KOSPI) in South Korea climbed by around 0.7%, while Australia’s ASX 200 (^AXJO) rose by around 0.3%.
While markets in the US are closed due to Labor Day, futures are pointing to further losses on Tuesday.
Futures on the S&P 500 (ES=F) fell by around 0.2%, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) were flat.
Futures on the Nasdaq (NQ=F), which last week had its worst weekly performance since March, fell by around 1%.
