European indices open significantly lower erasing yesterday's gains amid a slump in copper fuelled by global growth concerns as the World Bank cut its forecast for 2015 despite continuously falling oil prices. The bank cited disappointing growth prospects in the Eurozone and Japan as main reasons. Miners and oil-stocks lead declines.

According to Moody the "Grexit" seems a relatively unlikely scenario, even if the anti-austerity party Syriza will win in the upcoming Greek elections on January 25^th.

The FTSE 100 index is currently trading -1.40% quoted at 6,450.41 points, Germany's DAX 30 lost -0.94% trading at 9,847.18. France's CAC 40 dropped by -1.32%, currently trading at 4,233.60 points. French consumer price inflation rose in December according to official data. The French CPI rose by +0.1% compared to -0.2% in the previous month. Analysts expected a flat reading of 0.0%.

Markets await the European Court of Justice Ruling for OMT due at 09:30 GMT and data on Industrial Production in the Eurozone at 10:00 GMT. Later in the day a set of U.S. data is due being published from 13:30 GMT on, including Retail Sales, Business Inventories and the Import Price Index.