European Stocks Fall Amid AI Concerns and Fed Rate Hike Expectations

By EC Assets · Published 14 September 2026

European equities declined as concerns over artificial intelligence (AI) safety and expectations for Federal Reserve interest rate increases affected market sentiment. The STOXX 600 index closed lower, marking a broad market retreat. Technology stocks joined a global selloff. Markets are pricing in approximately 38 basis points of Federal Reserve rate hikes by the end of the year. The prospect of these hikes weighed on sentiment in European markets. US Treasury yields remained steady, with the 10-year yield approaching 5% ahead of an upcoming Federal Reserve rates decision. Some analysts suggest that the biggest risk for the bond market is the Fed maintaining its current stance. AI-related developments contributed to the market downturn. Anthropic, an AI company, issued a call for an AI slowdown, which impacted technology stocks. This warning also knocked Nasdaq futures and pressured tech sector shares. The CEO of Anthropic, Dario Amodei, issued a significant warning regarding AI. In other regional economic news, Slovakia's current account deficit narrowed to €436.8 million in April. Italy recorded a current account surplus of €2.3 billion in April. The Norges Bank kept its policy rate steady at 4.25%. The US dollar gained against most major trading partners, except for the yen. This occurred ahead of the release of August consumer price data and the preliminary University of Michigan sentiment report. This article is intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice.