Market Update
Stocks in Europe followed Asian markets lower at open, after Japan upgraded its nuclear crisis to the highest level.
At 1:45 p.m. (I.S.T.), Britain's FTSE, France's CAC and Germany's DAX slipped 0.5% to 0.7%.
Resource plays were the hardest hit as commodity prices fell in the futures market: miners BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto fell 2.4% each in London.
In financials, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole and Societe Generale declined 0.5% to 1.1%. While oil explorer BP lost 1.6% after crude prices came off.
Earlier, Asian markets dropped, led by Japan, after the country upgraded its last month's earthquake-triggered nuclear crisis to level 7, that of the Chernobyl disaster.