Global shares plunged on Wednesday, as concerns grew about the negative shock from artificial intelligence to key parts of the broader technology sector, while gold was on track for its biggest two-day gain in more than 17 years after a turbulent ride in recent days.
Oil prices briefly spiked after the U.S. shot down an Iranian drone and armed boats approached a U.S.-flagged vessel in a key waterway.
A selloff in global providers of data analytics, professional services and software deepened after Anthropic's launch of plug-ins for its Claude Cowork agent on Friday raised worries about an AI-fueled disruption to those industries.
European stocks fell from record highs, as shares in the likes of Britain's LSEG and RELX, and Wolters Kluwer of the Netherlands tumbled for a second day, having posted double-digit percentage drops on Tuesday.
"Anthropic is now, really obviously parking its tanks on their lawn," IG chief markets strategist Chris Beauchamp said of the software companies.
"The market is clearly telling them: 'look, your business models are under serious threat here, even if it's not doomed, it's not an apocalypse. It is certainly a major challenge for you to come up with solutions that involve partnerships with OpenAI or Anthropic or whatever it is," he said.
European equities were further pressured by an 18% slide in shares of Novo Nordisk after the maker of hit weight-loss drugs Wegovy and Ozempic offered a bleak 2026 outlook.
The STOXX 600 was down 0.2%, just below record highs, while the FTSE 100, which hosts LSEG and RELX, was up 0.5%, boosted by rallies in oil and healthcare stocks.
U.S. futures were little changed, after the benchmark indices dropped 1% the day before, led by sharp declines in software stocks such as Salesforce, Datadog and Adobe.
Volatile times
Precious metals, meanwhile, extended their recovery from a vicious two-day selloff that drove silver down by as much as 30% in a day.
Spot gold reclaimed the $5,000 level and was up 3% at $5,081 an ounce, bringing gains over the last two days to 9% – the largest such gain since late 2008. Silver rose more than 5% to nearly $90 an ounce.
The meltdown came after U.S. President Donald Trump announced Kevin Warsh as his pick to lead the Federal Reserve, with a margin hike by CME exacerbating the selling. Warsh is expected to shrink the Fed's balance sheet, which usually hurts non-yielding precious metals.
"We expect elevated volatility to continue in the near term, but stabilization should return once the market finds its footing," said Joshua Chim, general manager of online broker FSMone.
He added that retail investors on the platform had been "buying the dip via unit trusts or ETFs" following the "significant correction" in gold and silver prices.
In the oil market, Brent crude futures fell 0.2% to $67.2 a barrel, but were not far off six-month highs as investors kept a close eye on talks aimed at de-escalating recent U.S.-Iran tensions.
The U.S. military said on Tuesday it shot down an Iranian drone that "aggressively" approached the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea, which initially ignited a rally in the crude price to above $68 overnight.
Fed implications
In currency markets, volatility was more contained.
The European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of England (BoE) both meet on Thursday, but neither is expected to make changes to their respective interest rates. The euro was last at $1.18257, unchanged on the day, while sterling edged up 0.2% to $1.3724.
The yen struggled and fell to the weaker side of 156 per dollar, which rose 0.4%, ahead of a weekend lower house election in Japan that could see Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi win a stronger mandate to pursue tax cuts and expanded stimulus.
In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin languished near its lowest since November 2024 and was up just 0.14% at $76,270, having lost 2.9% on Tuesday.
"The market structure has weakened strongly since October," said Manuel Villegas Franceschi from Julius Baer's next generation research team, adding that the "tipping point for the crypto drawdown" had been Warsh's nomination.