Update: FTSE Wavers After US Stocks Enter Correction Territory

UK blue chips were trading down around 0.26% by 11.13am (GMT), at around 7,153 points while on the continent the Euro Stoxx 50 was down 0.57% to 3,358 points.

This follows a rough day of trading in the States yesterday with the Dow Jones falling over 1,000 points and is now on track to suffer the biggest weekly decline it has seen since October 2008 - the height of the global financial crisis..

US equities suffered its second sell-off in a week to hit 2018-lows with the Dow Jones and S&P 500 both entering what is deemed correction territory.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 4.15% to 23,860 points, just three days after falling 4.6% on Monday.

It has fallen 9.8% since its 11 January high, nearing a 10% decline which is deemed to be a technical correction.

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Meanwhile, the S&P 500 fell 3.75% to 2,581 points, also pushing it towards a 10% decline from its January high, while the Nasdaq composite was down 3.9% 

Pressure also came from the Treasury market with 10-year yields reaching their highest levels in four years.

The turbulence spread to Asian markets overnight with several benchmarks down across the region, wiping out most gains made from the previous two days.

In early morning trading in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng was down 3.6% while Tokyo's Topix had fallen 2.5%. As at 9:10am (GMT) these have somewhat rebounded from being down 3.1% and 1.9% respectively.

However as European markets opened this morning, the FTSE 100 was only down 0.4% to 7,142 and the FTSE 250 down 0.2% to 19,304.

This compares to the blue-chip index closing yesterday at 1.5% while the Euro Stoxx 600 was down 1.6%.

In currency terms, the euro fell 0.2% to $1.2244 while sterling closed 0.4%, its first advance in a week, likely on the back of Bank of England's Mark Carney's suggestion at another rate hike earlier than anticipated. Sterling was up 0.3% as at 9.20am (GMT) today.

Market commentators have attempted to explain the sudden declines seen this week with many putting the blame on complex exchange-traded notes and algorithmic trading strategies, according to the FT.