The French market is notably lower on Thursday, as a global sell-off continues on concerns that the Federal Reserve will scale down its stimulus program if labor market improves. The contraction in China's manufacturing activity further hurt the already fragile investor sentiment.
In prepared remarks before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress on Wednesday, Bernanke seemed supportive of leaving monetary policy unchanged in the near future. The Fed chief told the committee that a premature tightening of monetary policy carries a substantial risk of slowing or ending the economic recovery.
However, Bernanke later acknowledged that upbeat economic data could lead the Fed to scale back its asset purchase program in the next few meetings.
Further, the minutes of the latest FOMC meeting said a number of participants expressed willingness to adjust the flow of purchases downward as early as the June meeting.
China's manufacturing activity shrank for the first time in seven months in May, reflecting slower domestic demand and ongoing external headwinds, preliminary results of a survey by Markit Economics showed. The headline purchasing managers' index, an indicator of the health of the factory sector, fell to 49.6 from 50.4 in April.
Germany's private sector activity improved from a five-month low, but remained marginally below the neutral level, flash survey results from Markit Economics showed. Meanwhile, the downturn in French private sector output continued in May, flash data from Markit Economics revealed.
The U.K. economy avoided recession in the first quarter as initially estimated, second estimates from the Office for National Statistics showed. Gross domestic product grew 0.3 percent sequentially in the first quarter, offsetting the last quarter's 0.3 percent fall.
The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks is retreating 2.38 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, is declining 2.02 percent.
The CAC 40 index is currently falling 2.4 percent.
Societe Generale, Credit Agricole and BNP Paribas are declining between 4.5 percent and 3.4 percent. Insurer Axa is losing 3.7 percent.
Carmaker Renault and tire manufacturer Michelin are falling around 4 percent each.
Technip, which bagged a contract for flare modification in Abu Dhabi, is down 2.3 percent.
Elsewhere in Europe, the German DAX is retreating 2.7 percent and the UK's FTSE 100 is losing 2 percent Switzerland's SMI is declining 2.8 percent.
Across Asia/Pacific, markets were a sea of red. Australia's All Ordinaries retreated around 2 percent and Japan's Nikkei 225 plunged about 7 percent. China's Shanghai Composite Index and Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 1.2 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively.
In the U.S., futures point to a lower open on Wall Street. In the previous session, stocks fell sharply after minutes from the latest U.S. Federal Reserve meeting showed some officials were open to scaling back stimulus measures as early as June. The Dow slid half a percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.1 percent and the S&P 500 dropped 0.8 percent.
In the commodity space, crude for July delivery is falling $0.86 to $93.42 per barrel while June gold is gaining $21 to $1388.4 a troy ounce.
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