European Markets Decline Amid Concerns Over AI's Impact on Profits

Market Overview and Sector Performance

By Johann M Cherian

Technology Sector Decline

Feb 11 (Reuters) - European shares fell on Wednesday, weighed by technology and financials stocks on persisting worries that newer artificial intelligence models could shrink profit margins of traditional software businesses.

Financial Stocks Performance

The pan-European STOXX 600 index slipped 0.16% to 620.01 points by 0925 GMT, and share benchmarks in all major markets traded in the red. The broader technology sector fell 1.8% and led sector declines.

Investor Sentiment and Future Outlook

Dassault's shares tanked nearly 20% and were on track for its biggest daily drop on record after the software maker posted fourth-quarter revenue growth that disappointed investors and 2026 revenue guidance that fell short of expectations.

The French company ranked among the stocks that took a hit last week as AI-disruption worries swept through global markets. Those concerns spilled into more pockets of the market this week, including insurers, asset managers and index providers in the United States and Europe, after several new AI tools debuted.

"The fact that the tools, the applications are now being released is obviously putting more pressure on these companies' stocks," Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior market analyst at Swissquote Bank said.

European financial stocks fell. UK's St. James Place dropped 10.4% and Italy's FinecoBank lost 6.8%, as analysts pointed to Altruist's announcement of a new tax planning tool in its AI platform Hazel.

Insurance stocks slipped 0.2% and are among bottom performers on the STOXX index on a weekly basis with a near 2% drop. Brokerage Barclays downgraded the sector to 'Underweight'.  

"Taking a step back, the sell-off in the software space has gone ahead of itself. The speed of the the forecast about replacing the financial and insurance and legal services is somehow being overestimated," Ozkardeskaya said.

Investors instead preferred hardware makers such as Siemens Energy <ENR1n.DE>, which gained 5.3% after the AI equipment maker said net profit nearly tripled in the first three months of its fiscal year.

On the macro front, traders focused on worries that AI tools could add to unemployment as they shifted attention to a key U.S. jobs report due later in the day. The report would also help gauge expectations for interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve this year.

Among others, London Stock Exchange Group <LSEG.L> gained 2.2% after a report that activist hedge fund Elliott Management built a significant stake in the data provider.

Heineken <HEIN.AS> added 3.4% after saying it would cut up to 6,000 jobs from its global workforce, Commerzbank <CBKG.DE> lost 4.8% after the lender's in-line annual guidance failed to impress investors.

($1 = 0.8393 euros)

(Reporting by Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Tasim Zahid)