Markets in Europe were down sharply at 6 AM New York time.

The FTSE fell 1.6% to 6,452. Barclays (BCS) was off 4.7% to 530. BHP Billiton (BHP) was off 3.1% to 1619. Prudential (PUK) was off 3.7% to 685.5.

The DAXX dropped 1.1% to 7,989. Commezbank fell 2.4% to 27. Siemens (SI) was off 1.8% to 105.34.

The CAC 40 was down 1.7% to 5,643. Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) was off 3.7% to 5.42. AXA (AXA) was down 3.2% to 27.41  Societe Generale was off 3.3% to 102.21.

Data from Reutes.

Douglas A. McIntyre