Europe close: Rout in technology issues extends into a second day

Stocks across the Continent finished the week on a down note going into the long Labor Day holiday Stateside, weighed down by a renewed bout of selling on Wall Street.

Further dampening the mood was the August non-farm payrolls report, which did show a 1.4m gain in hiring (consensus: 1.52m) following the 1.734m rise reported for July, although the improvement was flattered by 248,000 field workers hired to conduct the 2020 census.

To take note of as well, overnight at least two top US central bank officials balked at providing more guidance on interest rates, with one of them, Chicago Fed boss, Charles Evans, saying that more clarity was needed on the US economy's path into spring 2021.

Echoing his words, the Monetary Policy Committee's Michael Saunders, said that more stimulus would likely be needed in the UK.

By the end of the session, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was 1.13% lower to 361.93, alongside a 0.82% drop for the FTSE Mibtel to 19,391.25, while Germany's Dax had declined 1.65% to 12,842.66.

Technology was again to be found at the bottom of the pile at the pan-European level, retreating by 2.65%.

One source of strength in markets at the end of the week was among lenders, with the Stoxx 600 sector gauge 1.6% higher after news that Spain's CaixaBank and Bankia were mulling a possible merger.

Shares of firms in the Basic Resources space meanwhile advanced 1.58%.

The latest economic data out of Europe meanwhile was on the soft side.

Factory orders in Germany increased at a month-on-month clip of 2.8% (consensus: 5%) for July, solely thanks to a jump in export orders, which offset a plunge in domestic orders.