全球半导体和相关企业的股票，在美国即将升息并将引发经济增速减缓的预期中出现了下跌。
较早时间，韩国的三星股票出现了近4周以来的最大跌幅，日本的东京电子也出现下滑。德意志银行分析师Fumiaki Sato认为，今年下半年全球对半导体和液晶显示器的需求会下降。 全欧洲17个西欧股票市场中有9个股市的基准指数下跌。包括日本、台湾和韩国的亚洲股市在政府公布了消费信心下降之后也出现了不同程度下跌。
Semiconductor-related shares slid worldwide amid expectations that rising interest rates in the United States would slow economic growth and as two brokerage firms advised investors to trim their holdings of chip shares.
STMicroelectronics, Infineon Technologies and ASML Holding declined in Europe after UBS lowered its rating on the chip industry to neutral from overweight. UBS forecast lower demand for chips.
Earlier, Samsung Electronics in South Korea had its biggest decline in four weeks and Tokyo Electron slid in Japan as a Deutsche Bank analyst, Fumiaki Sato, said he expected demand for chips and liquid-crystal displays to slow in the second half.
The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index in Europe fell 0.1 percent. The Morgan Stanley Capital International Asia-Pacific index, which tracks more than 900 stocks, slid 1 percent.
Standard & Poor's/TSX composite index, in Canada, added 0.1 percent, with technology shares limiting gains.
Concern that economic growth will slow heightened after the Federal Reserve Bank presidents, Jack Guynn and William Poole, joined the chairman, Alan Greenspan, this week in signaling that central bankers are ready to raise interest rates faster than investors expect to quell inflation.
In Europe, benchmark indexes fell in 9 of the 17 Western European markets. The DAX index, in Germany, slipped 0.2 percent. The CAC 40, in France, dropped 0.3 percent. The FTSE 100, in Britain, lost 0.1 percent.
In Asia, the Nikkei 225 stock average shed 0.4 percent, while the Taiex index, in Taiwan, dropped 2.3 percent. The Kospi index, in South Korea, slipped 3.9 percent. The benchmarks slipped after government reports showed consumer and manufacturers' confidence declining.
United States exchanges were closed yesterday for the funeral of former President Ronald Reagan.