DAX sinks 2.05% as AI spending fears drag Europe's markets down

Europe's trading day ended with red everywhere. The DAX dropped 2.05% at the close, while the Euro Stoxx 50 lost 1.12%. The FTSE 100 fell 1.01%, and the CAC 40 gave up 0.81%. The pullback followed steep losses on Wall Street and in Asia, leaving investors with nowhere comfortable to hide.

The culprit, per Breaking The News: nagging worries about artificial intelligence stocks and the possibility that data-center spending gets trimmed. That combination kept sellers in control from open to close. Europe simply couldn't shake the pressure rolling in from global markets.

Currencies joined the slide. The euro was down 0.63% against the dollar, selling for $1.11484, while the pound slipped 0.65% to $1.33634 as of 5:34 pm CET. Both moves suggest investors were pulling back from risk rather than picking through the wreckage.

Traders had a full plate of data to digest along the way: British house prices, German and Spanish industrial output, and French foreign trade figures all crossed the tape. Eurozone retail sales were still pending, giving markets one more number to chew on before the weekend.

With the session closed and the losses locked in, the story is still developing. The question hanging over Europe's desks now is whether the AI-spending anxiety that hammered Wall Street and Asia follows them into next week.