Market Update
Stocks in Europe edged lower early Wednesday, tracking losses on Wall Street and in Asia, as investors focused on signs of a slowdown in the global economy.
At the time of writing, Britain's FTSE, France's CAC and Germany's DAX dropped between 1.2% and 1.4%.
Financials were among the major decliners with BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland erasing 1.6% to 2.7%. Societe Generale fell 4.7% after declaring its quarterly earnings and saying it may miss its year's forecast after taking a write-down over Greek debt. Standard Chartered, however, rose 1.7% after declaring a dividend.
Miners BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Xstrata and Anglo American were off 1.3% to 2.4%.
In earnings-driven movers, Cairn Energy lost 3.5% following its quarterly earnings.