European markets are in retreat this morning on fresh fears for global growth sparked by a gloomy outlook from the US Federal Reserve.
The Fed says is plans to start buying treasuries again in a bit to revive the US economy. Coupled with softer growth figures from China, it has led to a strong sell-off in early trading.
London's FTSE 100 has fallen 1.27% to 5308.17, while Paris' CAC 40 is 1.12% lower and Frankfurt's Dax is down 1.23%.
BT, which has gone ex-dividend, is down 5.12% to 138.9p - while Eurasian Natural Resources has opened 3.63% lower to 930.5p.
Standard Life is 3.28% lower this morning despite posting a 10% jump in pre-tax profit to £182m.
Only two constituents of the FTSE 100 are in the black so far, with Diageo 0.64% higher and United Utilities 0.25% ahead.
In the Us overnight, the stimulus announcement was not enough to drag indices out of negative territory, with the Dow Jones ending Tuesday down 0.51% to 10,644.25. The broader S&P 500 lost 0.6% to 1,121.06, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropping 1.24% to 2,277.17.
Japanese stocks suffered on Wednesday after the US announcement led to strong gains for the yen against the dollar. Exporters were hurt by the move, dragging the Nikkei 225 diving 2.7% to 9,292.9.
