European stock markets lost ground, with London's FTSE down 25 points (0.45%) to close at 5,573.
In Paris, the CAC fell 16 points (0.43%) to 3,766 points while in Frankfurt the DAX lost 19 points (0.31%) to close at 6,279 points.
In Dublin, the Irish index of Irish shares fell 13 points (0.5%) to a provisional close of 2,686. Shares in Arysta were down 1.1% following its announcement that revenues for the year fell by 8.6% to €3.01 billion.
Banking shares were mostly in negative territory, with AIB falling 1.1% to €0.53 and Bank of Ireland slipping 2% to €0.58.
In New York, the Dow Jones had slipped 0.3% to 10,831 just after 5pm, while the Nasdaq had fallen 0.4% to 2,372 points.
Earlier, Tokyo's Nikkei closed 311 points (1.4%) higher at 9,603, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong gained 221 points (1%) to finish at 22,341.
