Major stock markets outside the United States ended on Tuesday.
Among the laggards, British military contractor BAE tumbled nearly 8 percent after the US justice department launched an anti-corruption probe. "Rising rates are clearly the major driver for this corrective phase," said Philippe Gijsels, senior equity strategist at Fortis Bank in Brussels. "Coupled with that, you have all the worries in the US housing and subprime mortgage sectors," he said. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index closed down 0.7 percent at 1,587.00 points. The benchmark index, still up about 7 percent so far this year, has lost 2 percent over the past four sessions.