European stocks end sharply lower

 LONDON: Europe's main stock market indices closed lower Tuesday, weighed down by concerns after a flare up of tensions in Ukraine.
London's FTSE 100 ended down 0.64 per cent compared to Monday's closing level, at 6,541.61 points.
Germany's DAX 30 slumped 1.77 percent to finish the day at 9,173.71 points and the CAC-40 in Paris fell 0.89 per cent to close on 4,345.35 points.
Meanwhile: US stocks moved higher Tuesday in early trade following solid earnings reports from Dow members Johnson & Johnson and Coca-Cola.
About 35 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 82.13 points (0.51 per cent) to 16,255.37.
The broad-based S&P 500 jumped 10.78 (0.59 per cent) to 1,841.39, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index put on 19.28 (0.48 per cent) at 4,041.98.
Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson reported earnings of $1.54 a share, six cents above analyst forecasts. The company raised its full-year profit outlook by five cents to $5.80-$5.90. Shares increased 1.3 per cent.
Meanwhile, Coca-Cola met earnings projections of 44 cents per share. The company said it achieved two percent global volume growth. Shares rose 2.9 per cent.
In other news, the Commerce Department said the consumer price index rose 0.2 per cent in March.
Some companies bruised in last week's sell-off posted solid gains. Gilead Sciences rose 2.5 per cent, Yahoo gained 0.9 per cent and Twitter increased 1.4 per cent. But Netflix dipped 0.7 per cent.
Dow component General Electric advanced 0.1 per cent following a Wall Street Journal report that chief executive Jeff Immelt may step down erlier than the expected 2021.
Zebra Technologies, a specialist in barcode and tracking technologies, dipped 1.8 per cent on news it will acquire Motorola Solutions's "enterprise" business for $2.5 billion. The Motorola assets specialize in mobile computing and data capture.
Motorola fell 0.7 per cent.
Lower metals prices pushed down Newmont Mining (-2.8 per cent) and Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold (-2.0 per cent).
Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 2.66 per cent from 2.64 per cent Monday, while the 30-year increased to 3.49 per cent from 3.48 per cent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.