Stocks in Europe opened sharply lower after debt-rating downgrades of Greece and Italy put a cloud over the fiscal state of several nations.
At 1:00 p.m. (I.S.T.), Britain's FTSE dropped 1.5% while France's CAC and Germany's DAX were off 1.8%.
Miners were hit hard in sector movers, with BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Xstrata and Anglo American losing 3% to 5%.
Airline stocks dropped sharply, with reports of volcanic activity further adding to selling: Ryanair Holdings, easyJet, Air France � KLM and Deutsche Lufthansa were off 3.2% to 6.2%.
In news-driven movers, ICAP rose 1.2% after Credit Suisse upgraded the stock to 'outperform'.