Wall Street tech selloff deepens, European shares steady

Wall Street shares dropped on Wednesday, with a tech selloff extending into a second day, while a key meeting of central bankers later this week remained in focus for currency and rates traders.

The S&P 500  declined 0.5% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite  dropped 1.1%, adding to a steep decline on Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average  was down 0.1%.

Analysts blamed a confluence of factors for the weakness in tech stocks, including concerns over steep valuations, investors exiting profitable positions, and risk aversion.

"To me, tech was overbought," said Seth Hickle, managing partner at Mindset Wealth Management. "We had really good earnings, and now it's kind of natural for the market just to sell some of that good news."

Wariness over U.S. President Donald Trump's growing influence over tech companies has also been in focus for investors. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is looking into the government taking equity stakes in Intel  and other chip companies, two sources told Reuters.

That follows other unusual revenue-sharing deals Washington recently struck with artificial intelligence chip giant Nvidia  and Advanced Micro Devices .

While the individual developments may be brushed aside by markets, they fall into the broader bucket of concerns over the institutional framework in the United States, Laidler said.

AI heavyweights Nvidia, Broadcom , Meta Platforms , Amazon  and Alphabet  were all down more than 1%. The Nasdaq is down about 2.5% over the past two sessions.

European shares rose, with the pan-European STOXX 600 index  up 0.25%. Britain's FTSE 100  rallied 1.17% to a record high, boosted by gains in consumer and healthcare companies.