Global stocks plummeted on Wednesday as Wall Street suffered its worst day since early August, with major player Nvidia falling 9.5% and leading a global sell-off in semiconductor stocks.
France's CAC 40 was down 0.8% at 7,513.31 at the open, while Germany's DAX was down 0.8% to 18,607.62. Britain's FTSE 100 also fell 0.8% to 8,230.49.
S&P 500 futures fell 0.4%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.2%.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei stock average fell 4.2 percent to close at 37,047.61, leading declines in Asia.
Shares of electronics and semiconductor maker Tokyo Electron fell 8.6% on Wednesday.
South Korea's KOSPI fell 3.2% to 2,580.80, while tech giant Samsung Electronics lost 3.5%.
Taiwan's Taiex fell 4.5% as major player Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) fell 5.4%.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.9% to close at 7,950.50 after data on Wednesday showed the country's GDP grew 1% compared with the second quarter of 2023, slightly above experts' expectations. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 1.1% to 17,457.34 and the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.7% to 2,784.28.
Libya is close to resolving the conflict over control of the country's oil revenues, and increased oil supplies have led to lower prices, which could lead to increased oil production soon.
Benchmark U.S. crude fell 57 cents to $69.77 a barrel, while the international standard Brent crude lost 75 cents to $73.00 a barrel.
Growing concerns about China's economy, the world's largest oil importer, have also reinforced doubts about future oil demand following recently released weak data dragged down by a sluggish property market and weak consumption.
Nvidia, the heaviest component of the S&P 500 index, fell 9.5% on Tuesday, with the semiconductor company's shares struggling even though it beat high expectations in its latest profit report.
The weak results could bolster criticism that Nvidia and other big tech stocks simply got too expensive amid Wall Street's enthusiasm for artificial intelligence technology.
The S&P 500 fell 2.1%, wiping out most of the gains it made during a three-week winning streak that had it near all-time highs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 626 points, or 1.5%, from its record high recorded on Friday before the Labor Day holiday on Monday.
The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 3.3% as Nvidia and other big tech stocks led the decline.
In the bond market, Treasury yields also fell after reports that U.S. manufacturing contracted again in August under the pressure of high interest rates.
Manufacturing has been shrinking for most of the past two years, and its August performance was worse than economists had expected.
“Demand remains subdued as current federal monetary policy and election uncertainty make businesses reluctant to invest in capital and inventory,” said Timothy Fiore, chairman of the manufacturing research committee at the Institute for Supply Management.
Other reports due later this week could show how much help the economy needs, including an update on the number of jobs U.S. employers were advertising at the end of July and how much the U.S. service industry grew in August.
The highlight of the week is likely to come on Friday, when a report will be released showing how many jobs U.S. employers added in August.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 119.47 points to 5,528.93 on Tuesday, the Dow lost 626.15 points to 40,936.93 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 577.33 points to 17,136.30.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 3.84% from Friday's close of 3.91%. This is a drop from 4.70% in late April, a big move for the bond market.
In the foreign exchange market, the U.S. dollar rose to 145.17 yen from 145.47 yen, and the euro rose to 1.1052 dollars from 1.1043 dollars.
