European stocks closed slightly lower on Wednesday amid sharp losses for banks and AI stocks. The Euro STOXX 50 dropped 0.2% to 6,454 and the STOXX Europe 600 closed flat at 652. European banks tumbled in the session despite the pullback in long-term yields after the US Treasury doubled its buyback program. BNP Paribas and ING fell 2.4% each, while Santander, UniCredit, and Intesa Sanpaolo lost 1.3%. In the meantime, ASML dropped 2.2% and Infineon slumped 4%, tracking the AI infrastructure sector in the US after financial results from OpenAI refrained from keeping up with the sharp growth from Antropic. On the other hand, consumer cyclical companies closed higher with Inditex and LVMH gaining around 2% each. Also, the jump in gold prices from the Treasury intervention lifted miners in London, with Rio Tinto and Glencore adding 4% and 5%, respectively.