European shares and US stock futures dropped on Friday following a brutal week for the world’s biggest tech companies, capped by lower than expected revenue forecasts from Amazon.
The Stoxx Europe 600 lost 1.1 per cent in early trading, while London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.9 per cent. Contracts tracking Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 fell 1 per cent, and those tracking the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 fell 1.4 per cent.
Frankfurt-listed shares of Amazon were down 12 per cent after the company warned late on Thursday that consumer spending was in “uncharted waters”. The big tech group, seen as a modern-day bellwether for the US economy, said it expected revenues to come in between $140bn and $148bn in the fourth quarter — as much as $15bn less than the figure forecast by analysts.