European stock markets First hour: Stocks decline tracking Wall Street

European stocks follow the Wall Street and fall at the start. On Friday strong U.S. jobs data led U.S. shares lower on expectations that the Federal Reserve might raise interest rates rather sooner than later.

Greece remains in the focus as the proposed list of measures is far from complete, the head of Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Sunday.

Today Destatis reported data on the Trade Balance of Eurozone's biggest economy that showed a decline from January's Balance and was below expectations. The Trade Balance fell from revised 21.6 billion euros (21.8) to 19.7 billion. Economist expected a rise to 22.3 billion euros.

Exports showed the sharpest decline in five months and slumped by 2.1% after strong gains in December although the weaker euro should bolster exports in the future. Imports declined by 0.3%.

Markets look forward to Eurozone's Sentix Investor Confidence data due at 09:30 GMT and the Eurogroup meetings scheduled for 10:00 GMT where Eurozone finance ministers will further discuss on how to proceed with Greece. Time is running out for the country as it is expected to run out of money by the end of the month.

The FTSE 100 index is currently trading -0.60% quoted at 6,870.67. Germany's DAX 30 lost -0.55% trading at 11,487.80, France's CAC 40 is currently trading at 4,928.83 points, -0.72%.