European stocks opened lower on July 19, 2024, as investors reacted to a series of global tech outages that impacted market performance. The declines followed a weak finish on Wall Street and were exacerbated by technical glitches in stock exchanges linked to a significant global cyber incident, identified as the Global Cyber Microsoft Outage. As European markets opened, equities were slightly down, reflecting the broader sentiment of caution among investors ahead of the European Central Bank's (ECB) rate decision. The combination of these factors has led to a challenging environment for tech shares, which saw notable declines at the market's opening.