The European markets are firmly in negative territory on Wednesday, after former Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos on Tuesday said preparations are being made for Greek exit from euro. Investors were also anxious as European Union leaders meet for a key summit.
European Union leaders are meeting in Brussels to hammer out an effective plan to rescue the euro in the wake of the threat posed by the probability of Greece exiting the single currency. The summit may unravel the growing disagreement between Germany and France over eurobonds and on assigning priority to growth over austerity.
The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks is declining 2.11 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, is dropping 1.49 percent.
The German DAX is declining 1.71 percent and the French CAC 40 is losing 2.10 percent. The UK's FTSE 100 is declining 1.83 percent and Switzerland's SMI is losing 0.86 percent.
In Frankfurt, Deutsche Boerse is declining 4.1 percent and airline Lufthansa is losing 3.9 percent.
ThyssenKrupp is falling 3.6 percent. Chipmaker Infineon Technologies is retreating 3 percent.
Commerzbank is losing 2.2 percent and Deutsche bank is falling 1.4 percent.
BMW and Volkswagen are notably lower while Daimler is moderately down.
SAP is down 0.9 percent. The business software maker has agreed to acquire cloud computing company Ariba Inc. for $4.3 billion.
In Paris, Credit Agricole is declining 5.2 percent, Societe Generale is losing 3.7 percent and BNP Paribas is falling around 3 percent.
Michelin is losing 4.7 percent. Goldman Sachs cut the stock to "Sell" from "Neutral."
Peugeot is declining 3.7 percent and Renault is losing 1.6 percent.
Credit Suisse raised Carrefour to "Outperform" from "Underperform." The stock is gaining 3.3 percent.
In London, Luxury brand Burberry reported a higher full year profit. The firm also announced investment in new space, which is expected to affect its operating margin in the first half. The stock is down 2.6 percent.
London Stock Exchange is plunging 6.7 percent after Italy's UniCredit SpA and Intesa Sanpaolo SpA sold a combined 11.5 percent holding in the bourse operator.
Man Group is declining 5.6 percent. Ratings agency Moody's said it is continuing its review for possible downgrade of Man Group's ratings.
Anglo American is losing 3.5 percent and Antofagasta is declining 4 percent. BHP Billiton is losing 3.7 percent. Kazakhmys is losing 5.1 percent.
Commodities trader Glencore is declining close to 5 percent.
Barclays is losing 4.1 percent and Royal Bank of Scotland is falling 3.4 percent.
Cove Energy is surging 11.6 percent. The gas explorer agreed to be bought out by Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production Public Co. Ltd. for 1.22 billion pounds.
Firstgroup is up 3 percent after reporting higher pre-tax profit.
Pirelli is falling 6.5 percent in Milan. Goldman Sachs cut the stock to "Neutral" from "Buy."
On the economic front, U.K. retail sales fell more than expected in April, data from the Office for National Statistics showed. Including automotive fuel, retail sales volume dropped 2.3 percent from a month ago, faster than the 0.8 percent decrease forecast by economists.
Meanwhile, minutes of Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee meeting showed that the panel decided to halt 325 billion pounds bond purchase program in May through a split vote. Governor Mervyn King and seven other members voted to maintain quantitative easing unchanged, while David Miles sought 25 billion pounds increase to a total of 350 billion pounds.
Across Asia/Pacific, Australia's All Ordinaries and Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 1.3 percent each, while Japan's Nikkei 225 retreated around 2 percent. China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.42 percent.
In the U.S., futures point to a lower open on Wall Street. In the previous session, stocks showed a notable move to the downside in the latter part of the trading day, despite a positive bias through much of the session. The Nasdaq dipped 0.3 percent, while the Dow edged down less than a tenth of a percent and the S&P 500 crept up 0.1 percent.
In the commodity space, crude for July delivery is losing $0.82 to $91.03 per barrel and June gold is falling $17.5 to $1559.1 a troy ounce.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com