Europe’s stock market party is showing no signs of winding down with the DAX is leading the celebrations on the week. Germany’s benchmark index is up another 1.0% at the open, pushing to fresh record highs even as Wall Street looks set for yet another troubling session.
Here’s how European indices are faring at the open:
Eurostoxx +0.3%
Germany DAX +1.0%
France CAC 40 +0.6%
UK FTSE +0.3%
Spain IBEX flat
Italy FTSE MIB -0.2%
It’s not exactly a clean sweep but European investors certainly have more reasons to smile than their US counterparts this morning at least. S&P 500 futures are down 0.4% while Nasdaq futures are falling 0.9% as tech stocks are once again looking vulnerable following the recent attempts to recover from last week’s brutal selloff.
Nvidia was the poster boy of the AI rally but amid CEO Jensen Huang’s affair scandals (yes, with an ‘s’ now), the chipmaker is facing heavy scrutiny with shares down another 6.5% in pre-market. If that is sustained, the open will see Nvidia fall to its lowest since July 2025. Ouch.
Anyway, the fact that the DAX is cruising along and pushing to fresh record highs suggests that investors aren’t simply treating Europe as a passenger in Wall Street’s rally anymore. That being said, there’s still a fair bit of unevenness beneath the surface with Spain and Italy slipping slightly. However, both indices have also recovered well to erase the entirety of their respective declines in October. So, there’s that.
Falling oil prices and geopolitical relief have helped to give European stocks a good nuge earlier in the week and that mood has persisted since, alongside more resilient corporate earnings in Q3. Investors have took to that and are still not letting go as we get into the second half of the week.
Perhaps there is also a sneaky bit of rotation play with US tech stocks having encountered much volatility in the past weeks and suddenly investors are rushing across the Atlantic? There is that to consider as well, although European equities have their own set of challenges amid growing fiscal risks in France, higher borrowing costs, and also a potential stagflation problem that may be building.
Circling back to the market open today, Europe is still very much dancing to its own tune. The DAX is setting the pace but the real test will be whether the rest of the region can keep up if Wall Street’s tech troubles continue to deepen.
This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.
