LIVE MARKETS-Europe gets a lift from defence, but autos, AI-vulnerable shares fall again

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EUROPE GETS A LIFT FROM DEFENCE, BUT AUTOS, AI-VULNERABLE SHARES FALL AGAIN

Europe's STOXX 600 .STOXX is up 0.2% on Friday, scraping towards a 0.2% gain for a week that has been dominated by a vicious selloff in anything from tech stocks to data and analytics shares, triggered by the release of a new AI model and by the surge in planned capex spending by the megacaps on rolling out this technology.

Auto stocks are proving to be a drag as French/Italian manufacturer Stellantis shares are down by almost a fifth in their largest one-day drop on record. A basket of autos stocks .SXAP is down 3.6%, thanks to the slide in Stellantis. Trading was briefly halted in the stock which plunged after the carmaker booked charges of around 22.2 billion euros ($26.5 billion) in the second half of 2025, as it scales down plans for electric-vehicle development.

In London, data and analytics stocks like LSEG, RELX and Sage are down between 2.1%-4.4%, after steep drops earlier this week as traders questioned how the release of an update from AI developer Anthropic might impact these companies' business models.

Meanwhile topping the STOXX index is Norwegian defence company Kongsberg Gruppen KOG.OL, which is up 15% after saying it had won an order worth 140 million euros ($165 million) from Germany and Sweden for remote weapon stations.

(Lucy Raitano)

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