European Markets
London's FTSE 100 dropped 0.8 per cent, the CAC 40 blue chip index in Paris fell 1.5 per cent and Frankfurt's electronically traded Xetra Dax was down 1.7 per cent.
Lcatel, Europe's fourth-biggest telecom equipment maker, declined 5.5 per cent, the world's biggest mobile phone maker Nokia dropped 1.9 per cent and German communication equipment maker Siemens was down three per cent.
Europe's biggest chipmaker STMicroelectronics lost five per cent, the region's No. 2 Infineon Technologies dropped 5.1 per cent and the third-biggest Philips Electronics fell 2.9 per cent.
British Airways, Europe's biggest airline, was off 3.3 per cent in London and Deutsche Lufthansa slipped 1.8 per cent in Frankfurt.
The AEX index in Amsterdam and the SMI in Zurich both lost 1.5 per cent, while Milan's MIB30 index was off 1.1 per cent.
The pan-European FTSE Eurotop 300, a broader index of the region's largest stocks, fell 1.3 percent.
Asian Markets
Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 average was virtually unchanged, up less than half a point.
Tokyo's broader capital-weighted TOPIX index lost just 0.07 per cent or 0.74 points.
Singapore was up nearly 0.4 per cent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index ended down about 0.1 per cent.
In Australia, the benchmark S& P/ASX200 added 1.54 per cent for its highest close since September 11.
