Markets in Europe were off sharply at 6.30 AM New York time.

The FTSE was down .7% to 6,403. Barclays (BCS) was down .7% to 738. BP (BP) was down 1% to 568.5. BT (BT) was down .2% to 310. GSK (GSK) was up .5% to 1466. Reuters (RTRSY) was down 1.3% to 482. Vodafone (VOD) was down .3% to 138.3.

The DAXX fell 1.3% to 7,189. DaimlerChryler (DCX) was off 2.5% to 58.92. DeutscheBank (DB) was down 1.2% to 107.92. Deutsche Telekom (DT) was down 1.1% to 13.18. Siemens (SI) was off 1% to 86.03.

The CAC 40 was down 1% to 5,778. Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) was down .9% to 9.27. AXA (AXA) was down 2.1% to 32.88. France Telecom (FTE) was off 1.3% to 20.41. ST Micro (STM) was off 1.7% to 14.88.

Data from Reuters

Douglas A. McIntyre