European shares extend losses as Wall Street falls

European shares extended losses on Thursday afternoon, after a downbeat start to trading on Wall Street, with new claims for U.S. unemployment benefit coming in slightly higher than expected.

At 1433 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 2.1 percent at 793.81 points, and touched a low of 792.73.

Banks were the biggest drag on the index, with Barclays, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and UBS between 4.9 and 12.6 percent lower.

The Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were down between 1.2 and 1.5 percent in the opening minutes of trading. The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits rose 3,000 last week, while so-called continued claims hit the highest level on record as the country's year-long recession continued to chill employment.