US stocks opened Gold tipped above $1,600 an ounce in Europe on Monday as investors spooked by the eurozone debt crisis and the threat of a US default piled into the metal as a safe haven from risk.
The spot price reached an all-time high of $1,603.40 at 12.50pm in London, as Italian and Spanish ten year bond yields also ticked-up back towards levels that forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal to ask for help.
Italian and Spanish 10-year bond yields climbed above 6pc, edging closer to the 7pc mark that prompted its smaller euro partners to seek bailouts.
“If we reach 7pc on Spain and Italy, we are probably approaching very quickly the point of no return,” Nicola Marinelli, a London-based fund manager at Glendevon King Asset Management, told Bloomberg.
Scepticism over the latest round of bank 'stress tests' and uncertainty amid a deepening eurozone debt crisis also saw european markets fall, as banking heavyweight Royal Bank of Scotland shed nearly 4pc in early morning deals.
City analysts and investors said on Friday that the criteria used in the latest report released by the European Banking Authority (EBA) on Friday were overly optimistic, and omitted the possible impact of a Greek default on the eurozone
The FTSE 100 index of leading shares opened down 0.76pc, as banking stocks led the Footsie fallers.
RBS, which has €1.15bn of exposure to Greece, shed 3.85pc to 33.7p, while Barclays fell nearly 3pc to 217.15p and Lloyds shed 2.53pc to 43.5p.
In Europe, Deutsche Bank AG, Germany’s biggest lender, slid 3pc to €36.08 and Italy’s UniCredit SpA lost 2.7pc to €1.17.
Italian markets were hardest hit, shedding almost 2pc in early morning deals, while the benchmark indices in Germany and France each fell 1.2pc.
The banking woes came as Spanish and Italian bond yields rose and the euro slid to a record versus the Swiss franc on concern European leaders will fail to agree on measures to contain the region’s debt crisis at a 'special summit' on Thursday.
The Telegraph
More:
No comments:
Post a Comment