Asian tech stocks tumbled on Tuesday and European equity futures dropped after a selloff on Wall Street as investors braced for U.S. inflation data and China’s ongoing anti-monopoly crackdown weighed on the country’s tech majors.
In early European trades, the pan-region Euro Stoxx 50 futures were down 1.35% and London’s FTSE futures dropped 1.26%. Those of German’s DAX fell 1.24%. U.S. stock futures, the S&P 500 e-minis, were down 0.48%.
In Asia, a regional equity gauge suffered its biggest slide in nearly two months with MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan down 1.6% in afternoon trade, its largest drop since late March. Japan’s Nikkei slid 3.16%.
Selling was heavy in Hong Kong, where the Hang Seng tech index fell 3% and dragged the broader market down nearly 2%. That followed a 2.55% fall on the Nasdaq overnight.
“Markets reversed course overnight as inflation fears drove investors away from growth stocks, notably the tech stocks, to pick cyclicals amid the momentum of the economic recovery,” said Hong Hao, head of research at BoCom International.