European Indexes Largely Lower as AI Selloff Bites

A facts-only brief, written by a local AI model from this article in The Wall Street Journal, October 30, 2026. It may contain mistakes, and it is not the article: the full story is at wsj.com.

The Bank of Japan kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged but indicated a shift toward tighter monetary policy by planning to speed up the liquidation of its holdings in domestic stock exchange-traded funds, a process set to begin in January. The central bank noted that core inflation aligns with its two percent goal and adjusted its projection for year-over-year price increases, excluding fresh food items, upward to 2.6 percent for the fiscal period commencing in April, surpassing the earlier estimate of 2.4 percent. In response to these moves, the Japanese currency appreciated, pushing the dollar exchange rate down to 157.36 yen from the previous level of 157.51 yen. Consequently, the Nikkei Stock Average widened its drop to 2.6 percent, settling at 62,972.78.

Background

• European equity markets generally declined, with the Stoxx 600 index losing 0.2 percent and the German DAX falling 0.4 percent, driven by elevated crude oil costs and continued selling in artificial intelligence-related shares.
• Specific tech and industrial firms in Europe saw sharp drops, including ASML, which fell 4.7 percent after a major client, Intel, predicted a sustained downturn in personal computer sales.
• The London FTSE 100 bucked the regional trend by gaining 0.2 percent, supported by strength in the energy sector, while the Italian and Spanish benchmarks dropped 0.9 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively.
• Before the central bank’s announcement, Japanese equities had already slipped 1.3 percent as traders awaited the policy decision and reacted to a previous night’s decline in Alphabet shares.

Read the full article at wsj.com

More from Friday, October 30: