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According to Citywire, the London index has followed a trend set by the Dow Jones in New York, which ended trading lower yesterday.
At 08:32 BST the FTSE was 42.11 points lower at 5,097.26, with a number of financial firms seeing their share prices drop.
There were declines for 3i and Schroders, while Royal Bank of Scotland shares lost 1.3p, taking them to 51.13p.
One of the biggest fallers in early trading was British Airways (BA), which declined by 6.6p after Citigroup said it was downgrading its outlook for the airline.
The US bank also opted to upgrade easyJet and Ryanair - two of BA's main competitors.
According to market strategist Joshua Raymond, the move was made because Citigroup believes there is "vulnerability to disappointments" for investors in BA shares.
