Moody's also overnight placed on negative outlook three other countries, including France and Britain, but the main European markets were all in positive territory in midday trading.
However markets slipped after the US Commerce Department said January retail sales rose by 0.4 percent from December. While that was the biggest gain since October, the increase was only half as large as analysts expected.
In late afternoon trade London's FTSE 100 was down 0.26 percent to 5,890.61 points. Frankfurt's DAX 30 slid 0.25 percent to 6,721.54 points and the Paris CAC 40 dipped 0.21 percent to 3,377.59 points.
In foreign exchange deals, the European single currency slipped to $1.3150 from $1.3191 late on Monday in New York.
US stocks also slipped on opening, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipping 0.16 percent to 12,853.26 points after the first five minutes of trade.
The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.25 percent to 1,348.41 points, while the tech-heave Nasdaq Composite lost 0.30 percent to 2,922.59 points.
European shares had rallied on Monday after Greek lawmakers approved disputed austerity measures that mark a key step to obtaining crucial European Union and International Monetary Fund aid for the debt-laden eurozone member.
Just as fears subsided on Monday, following the news on satisfactory austerity measures ratified by Greek parliament, another round of Moody's downgrades and outlook warnings for some of the EU countries took the wind out of the equities' sails.
Overnight, Moody's chopped the debt ratings of Italy, Spain and Portugal and put top 'Aaa'-rated France, Britain and Austria on warning, arguing that they were increasingly vulnerable to the long-running eurozone crisis.
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