19.07.2024, 16h18
Global stock markets fell on Friday, continuing the week’s trend in a session disrupted by a worldwide computer outage affecting particularly companies in the airline sector and stock exchanges.
SPENCER PLATT/Getty Images via AFP
Airlines, airports, banks, media, hospitals, and even the organizers of the Paris Olympics experienced disruptions on Friday, caused by an update related to the antivirus software offered by the American company CrowdStrike, affecting Windows and a large number of its users.
CrowdStrike announced that the origin of the computer outage was “identified” and “being fixed.” And Microsoft stated on their website that “the underlying cause of the problem has been corrected and several Microsoft 365 applications and services have regained their full functionality. The residual impact still affects some Microsoft 365 services and applications.”
In early trading on Wall Street, the value of CrowdStrike, which was over 85 billion dollars on Thursday, fell by 12.5%, and the American technology giant Microsoft lost 0.70%.
The three main indices on Wall Street opened lower: around 13:40 GMT, the Nasdaq was down 0.08%, the Dow Jones by 0.37%, and the S&P 500 by 0.02%.
In Europe, Paris was down 0.77%, Frankfurt by 0.75%, and Amsterdam by 0.73%.
The indices of the London and Milan stock exchanges experienced disruptions at the opening of the markets on Friday morning, then traded normally, but since 10:55 GMT their fluctuation rates have not been updated. The London FTSE 100 is stuck at -0.53% and the Milan FTSE MIB at -0.70%.
All European indices lost ground over the week.
However, stock trading proceeded normally on Friday morning at the Milan Stock Exchange, according to a spokesperson for Borsa italiana.
In Asia, Hong Kong fell sharply by 2.03% and the Bombay Nifty 50 index lost 1.09%. Shanghai gained 0.17% and Tokyo dropped 0.16%.
“The incident highlighted the interconnectedness of global digital infrastructure and the substantial consequences of technical failures,” noted Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG brokerage.
The tech sector has already suffered this week from potential new American restrictions in the semiconductor sector and remained sluggish on Friday. Over the week, the Nasdaq index fell by 2.9%, its worst performance in three months.
Series of outages
On the airline side, Ryanair was down 2.01% in Dublin, Wizz Air 0.31% in London, Air France-KLM 1.70% in Paris, and Lufthansa 1.63% in Frankfurt.
Fraport, the operator of Frankfurt Airport, also fell by 1.64%. The operator of Spanish airports, Aena, dropped 0.68% in Madrid. Aéroports de Paris was down 1.49%, even though its airports were spared by the outage.
On other financial markets
Oil prices were falling around 13:35 GMT, weighed down by gloomy economic data from China in addition to the strength of the dollar. Brent crude lost 0.79% to 84.44 dollars and WTI dropped 0.86% to 82.11 dollars.
In the bond market, interest rates for European and American states were rising.
On the currency side, the euro was down 0.10% to 1.0886 dollars for one euro.
The ounce of gold fell by 1.64% to 2,404.96 dollars, moving away from its record on Wednesday at 2,483.73 dollars.
Bitcoin rose by 1.47% to 64,760 dollars.