LONDON — European markets recovered from early morning losses on Monday as the sell-off in precious metals eased.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 pared losses from this morning to trade 0.5% higher as of 1 p.m. GMT (8 a.m. ET).
Major bourses also pared their losses. The U.K.’s FTSE index and France’s CAC 40 were last trading around 0.5% higher, and Germany’s DAX was last up 0.7%.
Tech stocks led losses in Europe, with the sector down 0.7%. Chip giant ASML was down 1.8%. Be Semiconductor and ASM International were both down around 2%.
The sharp declines in Europe on Monday come amid similar moves in global markets.
Silver, which has more than doubled over the past 12 months, plunged around 30% on Friday. That marked the metal’s worst one-day performance since 1980. Spot gold lost around 3.4% to $4,698 per ounce on Monday, and silver was last seen down 4.6% at $80 per ounce.
Spot gold and spot silver prices over the last three months
Asia-Pacific markets fell overnight with South Korean benchmarks leading declines, as investors monitored gold and silver prices after Friday’s sharp declines. Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures fell on Sunday night as traders kept an eye on bitcoin after a weekend sell-off.
Bitcoin on Saturday dropped below $80,000 for the first time since April, a sign investors were taking more risk off the table following Friday’s sharp declines in precious metals.
Wall Street also turned its attention to Nvidia as questions over the artificial intelligence boom loomed. Nvidia’s plans to pour $100 billion into OpenAI have stalled, with chipmaker execs expressing doubt about the deal, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Shares slipped 2% in premarket trading.
— CNBC’s Fred Imbert contributed to this market report.
