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Charts on the euro zone blue-chip Euro STOXX 50, up 0.3 percent at 2,506.06 points, suggested the recent declines, which saw the index shed 3.7 percent since Sept. 14, were likely to continue in the short term.

On Wednesday the index had broken below support at 2,509, corresponding to its most recent low on Sept. 11 and extending a bearish technical pattern known as a 'head and shoulders', where a rally - known as the 'head' - is between two smaller rises, or 'shoulders'.

"It's just a correction within the medium-term trend, which remains positive," Valerie Gastaldy, head of Paris-based technical analysis firm Day-By-Day, said.

She added the target of the head and shoulder pattern should provide support in the 2,466-2,470 area but warned the correction may extend further if the U.S. Standard & Poor's 500 index, up 0.9 percent to 1,445.75 at 1644 GMT, broke below the trendline started in June at 1,397.