European Markets Down on Credit Jitters

European indexes were all down in Thursday morning trading.

France's CAC 40 lead the way, down 1.68%. Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) fell 3.9%. AXA (AXA) was off 3.4%. BNP Paribas (BNPQY.PK) fell 3.2%.

London's FTSE 100 was off 1.43%. Rentokil Initial plc (RTOKY.PK) plunged 22.1%. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Barclays (BCS) fell again, down 5.2% and 4.6% respectively. Glaxosmithkline (GSK) gained 1%.

The Dax was down 0.93% as of 5:15 a.m. ET. DaimlerChrysler (DAI) dropped 3.2%. Infineon (IFX) was down 2.5%. Siemens (SI) fell 1.8%. Merck Kgaa was up 1%, the index's leader.

One analyst said market pressure was due to investors doubting a plan initiated Wednesday by the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks would do enough to inject long-term liquidity back into the credit markets. "If you look at actual longer-term money rates they haven't moved. People are concerned that this might be a very nice short-term easing but is it going to restore trust and confidence so that when we get to four, five, six months ... banks are in any greater sense of willingness to lend to one another," said Cantor Fitzgerald's Steven Pope.

Sources: Reuters
Additional Reading: Asian Markets Drop Sharply Thursday

Seeking Alpha's news briefs are combined into a pre-market summary called Wall Street Breakfast. Get Wall Street Breakfast by email -- it's free and takes only seconds to sign up.