LONDON (AP) — World stock markets mostly fell Tuesday amid renewed concerns about the banking sector after Britain's Royal Bank of Scotland PLC got more government help and Switzerland's UBS AG booked another massive charge.

Uncertainty about a raft of key economic announcements later this week, which culminates in Friday's closely watched U.S. payrolls report for October, kept a lid on sentiment, too, though the $34 billion takeover of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. helped ease the selling pressure at the U.S. open.

In Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 106.52 points, or 2.1 percent, at 4,997.98 while Germany's DAX fell 93.20 points, or 1.7 percent, to 5,337.62. The CAC-40 in France was 73.40 points, or 2 percent, lower at 3,566.06.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 39.22 points, or 0.4 percent, at 9,750.22 soon after the open while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 3.81 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,039.07.

Before Berkshire Hathaway's takeover deal was announced, U.S. stocks had been expected to post bigger losses — investors get excited about mergers and acquisitions as they are often part and parcel of a rising stock market and an improving wider economy.

Most attention in Europe focused on the banks, particularly Lloyds Banking Group PLC and Royal Bank of Scotland PLC.

Royal Bank said that it was taking an additional 25 billion pounds from the government and joining the government's Asset Protection Scheme. Meanwhile, Lloyds confirmed it was looking to raise at least 21 billion pounds ($34.2 billion) through a record share issue and debt swap, instead of joining the insurance scheme.

As a result, the pair faced differing reactions in the markets. While shares in Royal Bank of Scotland slid around 10 percent, Lloyds was steady.

Results from UBS kept the banks in focus across Europe. The Swiss bank reported a third-quarter net loss of 564 million Swiss francs ($542 million) — its fourth straight quarterly loss — after 2.15 billion francs in accounting charges. UBS shares fell around 7 percent on the Zurich exchange.

It wasn't just the banks causing concern in Europe, however. German carmaker BMW AG saw its share price slide around 7 percent after it reported a bigger than expected 74 percent decline in third quarter net income.

Many analysts think that the markets are at a crucial juncture and that stocks, which have rallied for most of the year, could be facing a year-end slide. Over the last couple of months, most of the dips have proved to be short-lived.

"At the moment however, it seems that traders do not have the same conviction that they have displayed previously and rallies from here are proving to be unsustainable," said David Jones, chief market strategist at IG Index.

Economic matters will be at the forefront of traders' attention this week. In particular, they will be looking to see what the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England say about the world economy when they announce their latest interest rate decisions.

Though all three banks are expected to keep their benchmark rates at historic lows, investors will be focusing on what they say about economic prospects and when extraordinary measures to boost the world economy will start to be unwound. The Bank of England is the only one that may well change current policy, with most analysts now predicting that it will increase the amount of money it pumps into the economy.

Investors remain particularly nervous about the U.S. jobs report for October, which often sets the stock market tone for a week or two.