European Stocks. First hour: Indices extend losses on Greece concerns

European stocks extend yesterday's losses. On Monday indices declined sharply tracking losses on Wall Street and Asia on concerns over economic growth in China and worries about developments in Greece. Over the weekend Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsirpas had 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. Greek Defence Minister said that if Greece will get no help from the European Union it can look somewhere else. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker warned Greece that the Eurozone is not going to accept Tsirpas plans.

The French Industrial Production, month on month, rose by +1.5% in December, beating forecasts for an increase by +0.3%. The solid growth in December came after disappointing data from November with a revised negative growth -0.2%. Year on year Industry output declined -0.1% compared to -2.6% in November.

The FTSE 100 index is currently trading -0.58% quoted at 6,797.16 points. Germany's DAX 30 dropped -0.43% trading at 10,617.82. France's CAC 40 lost -0.20%, currently trading at 4,641.99 points.