The STOXX 600 index fell 0.5%, while the FTSE 100, DAX, and CAC 40 dropped 0.5%

European stocks opened lower on Friday, following a rout on Wall Street on Thursday as investors ditched tech stocks.

The STOXX 600 (^STOXX) index of Europe’s leading stocks dropped 0.5% on the open, after losing 1.4% the previous day. Tech firms on the index were down 0.8%, after tumbling 3.8% on Thursday.

Britain’s FTSE 100 (^FTSE), Germany’s DAX (^GDAXI) and France’s CAC 40 (^FCHI) were all down 0.5% in early trading.

Stock futures were pointing to a continued sell-off in the US when markets open later on Friday.

It comes after the tech-heavy Nasdaq (^IXIC) tumbled by 5% in Thursday trading, marking its biggest daily fall in three months as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and other tech giants tanked. The index remains up 67% on lows seen in March, however.

Meanwhile the S&P 500 (^GSPC), off the back of a record high on Wednesday, dropped 3.5% and the Dow (^DJI) lost 2.8%, having also hit a post-pandemic high the previous day.

Nasdaq (NQ=F) futures were down 1.3% as European markets opened, while S&P 500 futures (ES=F) were down 0.6% and Dow futures (YM=F) were 0.4% lower.

Big tech was the main culprit behind the losses after having continuously powered forward since March. We’ll see how the Robinhood community, that aren’t used to markets going down, react, wrote Deutsche Bank analysts in a note.

The sell-off spilled over into Asian markets overnight. China’s SSE Composite Index (^SSEC) fell 0.9%, Japan’s Nikkei (^N225) lost 1.1% and the Hong Kong Hang Seng (^HSI) lost 1.6%.