European stocks closed at a nearly three-week high on Wednesday, boosted by a rally in the region's bank shares a day after U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman-nominee Jerome Powell said he hopes to ease financial regulations. The U.K. stock market, however, missed out on the European bounce as the pound rallied after signs of a breakthrough in Brexit negotiations between London and Brussels.

U.S. benchmark stock indexes ended mixed on Wednesday. The Dow hit a fresh record close, whereas the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell after tech stocks came under selling pressure. So-called FAANG stocks like Apple AAPL, -2.07% , Amazon AMZN, -2.71% and Google GOOG, -2.46% shed more than 2% of their value.

The week's global decline in technology stocks continued Thursday, weighing on Asian markets. Asian chip shares fell after fresh selling in the U.S. overnight, with the Nasdaq Composite falling 1.3% during a 4.4% slump in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, its biggest drop of the year.