Europe close: Stocks fall on growing AI bubble fears
By Josh White
Date: Tuesday 18 Nov 2025
(Sharecast News) - European equities fell sharply on Tuesday as concerns over stretched artificial intelligence valuations and a major internet outage weighed on sentiment across the region.
The Stoxx 600 dropped 1.76% to 561.62, while Germany's DAX fell 1.77% to 23,173.05.
France's CAC 40 slipped 1,86% to 7,967.93 and London's FTSE 100 declined 1.27% to 9,552.30.
Russ Mould at AJ Bell noted that "another downbeat session on Wall Street yesterday was followed by heavier selling in Asia today and that set the scene for a meaningful drop in the FTSE 100," adding that "as fears over an AI bubble build, there has rarely been more riding on an individual set of results than Nvidia's on Wednesday."
Market nerves intensified after Google chief executive Sundar Pichai warned that no company would be spared if the AI valuation bubble were to burst.
Mould warned that "even a mild disappointment could reinforce the market's worries and spark a wider sell-off," while Patrick Munnelly at TickMill said that "stocks took a hit, and Bitcoin plunged to its lowest print in seven months as investors shied away from risk amid a pivotal week, with Nvidia's earnings and the much-awaited US jobs report stealing the spotlight."
He added that "global markets edged closer to a one-month low," with Asia's benchmark index breaking below its 50-day moving average "for the first time since April - an ominous signal for chart watchers."
Sentiment was further unsettled by a major outage at Cloudflare, the US network services firm used by around a fifth of global websites.
The disruption briefly took down platforms including X, OpenAI, Spotify, Ikea, Bet365 and Cloudflare itself.
Cloudflare attributed the issue to an "internal service degradation" following a server update, adding that services were recovering but error rates remained elevated during remediation efforts.
Sharecast was among the sites temporarily affected.
Roche among the gainers, Akzo Nobel falls on merger announcement
There were no significant economic releases in Europe, leaving corporate updates to drive stock-specific moves.
Roche was a standout gainer, jumping 6.79% after the Swiss healthcare group reported strong phase three trial results for its giredestrant breast cancer treatment.
The lidERA study met its primary endpoint, showing a "statistically significant and clinically meaningful" improvement in invasive disease-free survival versus standard endocrine therapy.
Chief medical officer Levi Garraway said the data underscored the drug's potential to become a new standard of care in early-stage ER-positive breast cancer, which accounts for about 70% of diagnosed cases.
In London, shares in ICG rose 5.02% after French asset manager Amundi agreed to acquire a 9.9% stake in the British firm as part of a 10-year strategic partnership.
Amundi would become the exclusive global distributor of selected ICG products in the wealth channel, while ICG would supply strategies for Amundi's offerings.
The deal coincided with interim results showing a 14% rise in total assets under management to $124.3bn and a jump in pre-tax profit to £352m.
Amundi fell 3.6% despite the announcement.
Elsewhere on the downside, Dulux maker Akzo Nobel slumped 2.9% after agreeing an all-share merger with US peer Axalta to create a global coatings group valued at about $25bn.
Akzo shareholders will own 55% of the combined company, which was targeting $600m in run-rate synergies within three years.
The company said the deal would strengthen its portfolio, broaden customer reach and support faster growth.
Novo Nordisk fell 2.51% after announcing it would accelerate a planned price cut for Wegovy in the US, reducing the monthly cost of the obesity drug to $349 from $499 ahead of schedule.
Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.
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