European Markets Are Down A Bit

European markets are down slightly early Wednesday.

Here's the scorecard:

France's CAC 40 is down 0.03%

Spain's IBEX is basically flat, down 0.06%

Italy's FTSE MIB is down 0.36%

Britain's FTSE 100 is down 0.82%

Germany's DAX is down 0.10%

In Asia, it was a good night for the Nikkei after several bad ones, closing up 0.92%. The Hang Seng also closed up 0.61%.

US futures are mixed and effectively flat: Dow futures are up 0.02%, and S&P futures are down 0.07%.

From the US, the two big scheduled events are the released of retail sales data for September, which will be out at 5 a.m. ET, and the Fed's beige book at 1.30 p.m. ET.