* Europe shares down 0.7 percent, touch two-week lows
* Financial, construction shares among top decliners
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By Atul Prakash
LONDON, Sept 23 (Reuters) - European shares slipped for a third straight session to a two-week low on Thursday, with a major index falling below a key technical level, on concerns about the state of some European economies and on poor data.
Figures showed the pace of growth in the euro zone's services and manufacturing sectors slowed much more than expected this month, while European corporate credit default swap spreads widened.
"Talk of another large sell programme, rumours that Anglo Irish will not pay sub-ordinated debt holders and credit default swaps widening for Spain and Ireland are putting pressure on European equities," said Manoj Ladwa, trader at ETX Capital.
Ireland and the Irish banks CDS spreads were wider, reflecting concerns over the state of the Irish economy and the cost of winding down Anglo Irish Bank. The Irish government is aiming to raise up to 500 million euros ($670.2 million) in an auction on Thursday.
At 1128 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 0.7 percent at 1,059.41 points after rising to a high of 1,074.48 earlier in the session. It fell 1.5 percent on Wednesday and is up just 1.5 percent this year.
Financials were the top losers, with the STOXX Europe 600 banking index falling 1.3 percent. Standard Chartered, Lloyds, Societe Generale, Bank of Ireland and KBC Groep fell 2 to 4 percent.
Across Europe, Britain's FTSE 100, Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 fell 0.8 to 1.2 percent, while the Thomson Reuters Peripheral Eurozone Countries Index was down 1.1 percent.
"Peripheral European countries are always going to have some concerns and it will vary from day to day and Ireland is no exception, but the fundamental picture is still positive," said Graham Bishop, equity strategist at RBS. "The global recovery continues and valuations are attractive," he added.
According to Thomson Reuters Datastream, the STOXX Europe 600 index traded at 10.7 times its one-year forward earnings, against a 10-year average of 14 times.
TECHNICAL PICTURE
The Euro STOXX 50, the euro zone's blue chip index, fell 0.9 percent to 2,725.99 points to hover below its 50-percent Fibonacci retracement level of 2,737.62 of a fall from a high in April to a May low.
If the index continues to stay below the retracement level in the coming sessions, that would indicate a bearish signal.
"Monday's rally is turning into a bull trap," said Nicolas Suiffet, analyst at Trading Central, in Paris.
"All eyes are on the S&P 500. If it falls back below the key 1,130 level, this will signal the return of a negative bias for the market and the end of the optimism ignited earlier this week when the benchmark broke out of its range."
On Wednesday, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index slipped 5.50 points, or 0.48 percent, to 1,134.28.
Investors awaited U.S. weekly jobless and existing homes sales data for the latest reading on the state of the economy following the Fed's downbeat assessment on Wednesday.
"Of all the data, the existing home sales is the most important. We need to see a significant bounce there to give markets any assurance," said Bernard McAlinden, investment strategist NCB Stockbrokers in Dublin.
Among individual movers, Italy's Piaggio fell 4.4 percent after its strategy plan, which set targets broadly in line with market expectations. ($1=.7461 Euro) (Additional reporting by Blaise Robinson in Paris and Brian Gorman in London)