A slide in technology companies weighed on US stocks today, pulling the market lower for the first time this week and erasing modest gains from a day earlier.

Royal Bank of Scotland is likely to write down the value of its US bank, Citizens by about £4bn (€5.4bn) next week, industry sources said, potentially wiping out much of the state-backed bank’s annual profit.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Britain’s biggest government-owned lender, has hired Ewen Stevenson from Credit Suisse Group as chief financial officer.