By Johann M Cherian
Feb 11 (Reuters) – European shares fell on Wednesday, weighed by technology and financials stocks on persisting worries that newer artificial intelligence models could shrink profit margins of traditional software businesses.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index slipped 0.16% to 620.01 points by 0925 GMT, and share benchmarks in all major markets traded in the red. The broader technology sector fell 1.8% and led sector declines.
Dassault’s shares tanked nearly 20% and were on track for its biggest daily drop on record after the software maker posted fourth-quarter revenue growth that disappointed investors and 2026 revenue guidance that fell short of expectations.
The French company ranked among the stocks that took a hit last week as AI-disruption worries swept through global markets. Those concerns spilled into more pockets of the market this week, including insurers, asset managers and index providers in the United States and Europe, after several new AI tools debuted.
“The fact that the tools, the applications are now being released is obviously putting more pressure on these companies’ stocks,” Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior market analyst at Swissquote Bank said.
European financial stocks fell. UK’s St. James Place dropped 10.4% and Italy’s FinecoBank lost 6.8%, as analysts pointed to Altruist’s announcement of a new tax planning tool in its AI platform Hazel.
Insurance stocks slipped 0.2% and are among bottom performers on the STOXX index on a weekly basis with a near 2% drop. Brokerage Barclays downgraded the sector to ‘Underweight’.
“Taking a step back, the sell-off in the software space has gone ahead of itself. The speed of the the forecast about replacing the financial and insurance and legal services is somehow being overestimated,” Ozkardeskaya said.
Investors instead preferred hardware makers such as Siemens Energy
On the macro front, traders focused on worries that AI tools could add to unemployment as they shifted attention to a key U.S. jobs report due later in the day. The report would also help gauge expectations for interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve this year.
Among others, London Stock Exchange Group
Heineken
($1 = 0.8393 euros)
(Reporting by Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Tasim Zahid)
