karen tso is with us in the early action across the pond. >> dom, good morning to you. on the back of the selling we saw stateside and ahead of the futures declining today, european markets were looking a little bit long in the tooth. don't forget we had eight straight days of melting. the records inked recently. the markets turning tail. the reality check with china and the import and export picture is slower than expected despite the officials stimulating demand. on the back of the data, you can see we have moved lower. the ftse is down .6%. french stocks suffering. luxury names were one of the big drivers yesterday. the luxury names bounced off november into this month and giving back some territory. that is a real weight on the french stock market today. the dax is only down .10%. that has been the state of play for german stocks. they climbed to fresh records yesterday. today, not falling as much as the rest of the major boards. stocks out of italy down .10%. the ftse is under pressure. one big name here. earlier, there were flight of big names out of the uk to the