European markets are heading down while they wait for the US Fed

European markets are having a feeble end to the week, with all eyes on the US Federal Reserve meeting next week.

Overnight on Wall Street, US markets closed up a little higher at 0.5%.

"The overriding factor for markets from now until next week will still focus on the 'will they won't they' hike rates at the coming FOMC 16^th & 17^th meeting," Mic Mills, head of client services at CapitalIndex, said in an e-mail.

"Although US growth alone point toward room to hike, the general fragility of the world economy and Asian concerns in particular should be enough to keep things on hold," said Mills.

Here's the European share market scoreboard:

UK's FTSE: -0.20%

Germany's DAX: -0.37%

France's CAC40: -0.22%

Spain's IBEX: -0.62%

And this is what's happened to the Euro Stoxx 50, which is an index of Europe's biggest publicly listed companies. It opened down 0.35%:

Meanwhile, Brent crude oil is crumbling,