Global shares were mixed on Wednesday as chipmakers dragged on technology stocks and trade war anxieties came to the fore.
Later in the afternoon, Bloomberg reported that US President Donald Trump expects to fire the Federal Reserve chairman soon, plunging Wall Street’s main indices into the red.
Dublin
Led lower by the larger caps, the Iseq index fell by more than 1 per cent, broadly in line with its European counterparts.
Bank stocks dropped, with AIB shedding 1.8 per cent to close at €6.69 per share while Bank of Ireland fell by 0.6 per cent to €12.07.
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Kingspan slid more than 2.5 per cent to €69.35 while Ryanair treaded water, closing at €23.55.
Also of note, Kenmare Resources shed almost 5.8 per cent to close at €3.58 per share after the titanium minerals miner said it expects to take an impairment charge of as much as $125 million (€107.7 million) against its mining assets in Mozambique as it lowered its future revenue assumptions.
Europe
European shares dropped, with the blue-chip Stoxx 50 index down 1.2 per cent, dragged lower by technology and auto stocks.
Shares in ASML plunged by more than 11.3 per cent, its biggest single-day fall in nearly nine months, after the world’s biggest supplier of computer chip-making equipment warned it may not achieve growth in 2026, despite second-quarter bookings beating expectations.
European auto stocks fell 1.3 per cent, led by Renault, which dropped 17.4 per cent to a more than one-year low, after the French carmaker on Tuesday lowered its full-year operating margins forecast and naming finance chief Duncan Minto as an interim chief executive.
Stellantis fell 3.3 per cent after the carmaker said it would discontinue its hydrogen fuel cell technology programme and no longer launch a range of hydrogen-powered vehicles this year.
London
The UK’s main indices outperformed their European peers with the benchmark FTSE 100 down just 0.1 per cent while the mid-cap FTSE 250 dipped 0.4 per cent.
Britain’s annual rate of consumer price inflation unexpectedly rose to its highest in over a year at 3.6 per cent in June, as higher costs of motor fuel, transport and food pushed up prices.
Barclays shed 0.2 per cent after British regulators fined the bank £42 million over failures to properly identify financial crime risks with two clients.
Bank shares were otherwise mixed, with NatWest shedding almost 0.6 per cent while Lloyds added 0.2 per cent and HSBC dropped 0.1 per cent.
AstraZeneca fell 0.6 per cent after the drugmaker’s experimental therapy, anselamimab, failed to meet the main goal of a late-stage study for the treatment of AL amyloidosis.
Rio Tinto rose 1.2 per cent after the mining giant reported its strongest second-quarter iron ore production since 2018.
New York
A muted opening on Wall Street was followed by a sharp dip across the main equities indices after Bloomberg, citing a White House source, reported that US president Donald Trump is likely to fire Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell soon.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2 per cent while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite both lost 0.3 per cent by around 5pm in Dublin.
The US dollar fell by as much as 0.7 per cent against a basket of big currencies in a matter of moments after the news hit, while rate-sensitive areas of the market such as US regional banking shares, fell and gold rallied.
Shares in Bank of America fell 2.3 per cent.
Goldman Sachs shed 0.3 per cent despite posting the largest revenue haul in Wall Street history. Morgan Stanley shares slid more than 3 per cent.
Chip-maker Micron fell 3.5 per cent in line with a wider sectoral move while Nvidia slid by 0.3 per cent. – Additional reporting: Bloomberg, Reuters
