European stocks slumped sharply in early trading tracking losses on Wall Street and Asia on concerns over economic growth in China and worries about developments in Greece. Yesterday data showed that China's trade performance slumped far more than analysts expected. Over the weekend Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsirpas ruled out any extension of the international bailout and reaffirmed that he will stick to his plan to roll back austerity measures. On late Friday Standard and Poor's downgraded Greece from B- to B, only one notch higher than "default" and kept the outlook for Greece negative. S&P warned that time is running out for Greece to reach an agreement.

Today data on German Trade Balance was published. Germany's surplus widened in December from revised 17.9 billion to 21.8 billion, more than the 18.2 billion predicted by economists.

The FTSE 100 index is currently trading -0.92% quoted at 6,790.65 points. Germany's DAX 30 dropped -1.74% trading at 10,657.73. France's CAC 40 slumped -1.32%, currently trading at 4,629.08 points.