European shares close 0.1% higher

The pan-European STOXX 600 ended up 0.1% higher at 617.93 points

Europe’s benchmark share index nudged up to another record close on Tuesday as a sharp selloff in software and advertising companies offset a rally in commodity-linked stocks.

The pan-European STOXX 600 ended up 0.1% higher at 617.93 points, having also closed at an all-time high on Monday.

At the start of the session, the cooldown in the metal selloff has given an energy boost to investors and we had a better risk appetite. But as the session progressed, we started to see that risk appetite wane, said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, Swissquote bank’s senior market analyst.

The media sector led declines, down 5.9% for its biggest one-day drop in nearly six years, while technology stocks slipped 4.2% in their sharpest decline in more than 10 months.

Traders and analysts pointed to the launch of Anthropic’s legal plug-in for its Claude generative AI chatbot as one catalyst behind the broader move, as investors reassessed whether incumbent firms can defend their business models, underscoring AI’s disruptive threat to the software sector.

The pressure hit legal and professional analytics providers. Britain’s RELX and the Netherlands’ Wolters Kluwer dropped 14.4% and 12.7%, respectively. Germany’s SAP was down 4.6%.

Other professional-services names also traded lower, with Experian, Sage Group, and London Stock Exchange Group down between 6.7% and 12.8%.

Advertising stocks were also under strain. France’s Publicis declined 9.2% despite forecasting 4% to 5% organic growth for 2026.

As the earnings are coming into the light, we start seeing that what investors really want is to dig deeper into the revenue and profit prospects — impressive numbers are no longer as impressive, Ozkardeskaya said.

Basic resources rose the most among sectors, up 4.2%.

Commodity-linked stocks had been under pressure since late last week.

The European mining sector remains the best-performing this year, with a more than 18% gain.

The energy sector advanced 1.5% as oil prices crept higher.