Europe Markets Open Lower As Asian Markets Slump

European stock markets opened sharply lower Wednesday as volatility continued to grip Asia.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 fell nearly 2 percent, while London’s benchmark FTSE 100 tumbled 90 points -- a drop of 1.5 percent. Germany’s Dax was trading 1.9 percent lower and France’s CAC 40 was down by more than 2 percent.

Earlier Wednesday, Asian bourses witnessed a drastic rise and fall in share prices, as China’s rate cut announcement from the previous day failed to placate investors. The Shanghai Composite index eventually ended the day in the red again, down 1.3 percent.

Volatility is “well and truly still alive in the markets this week," Augustin Eden of the U.K.-based Accendo Markets, told the Guardian.

Meanwhile, the euro, whose future was in doubt just a few weeks back during the Greek debt crisis, seems to have become a go-to currency for investors. As global stock markets continue to plunge, the euro has surged almost 4 percent against a basket of other currencies over the past month, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

"Recent price action is knee-jerk, there is no fundamental reason for the euro to rally," Robin Brooks, a currency analyst at Goldman Sachs, told the Wall Street Journal. "The euro is being treated as a safe haven."

Stock futures on American indexes -- the S&P, Nasdaq and the Dow Jones -- were all up about 0.9 percent.