Eurozone

European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet warned the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday that the financial crisis facing the eurozone is systemic and that Europe's leaders must take decisive action in order to prevent it from escalating and spreading. Trichet will soon be stepping...

Dexia SA agreed to sell its Belgian banking retail operations to the Belgian government for 4 billion euros ($5.4 billion) in order to prevent the Belgian-French financial institution from going bankrupt. Dexia had recently lost access to short term funding because of concerns over its debt...

Banking stocks across Europe have been rising since European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said that the eurozone's leaders were considering recapitalizing the region's banks. Banking stocks had already been given a boost after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Europe needed to...

The most important real near term news coming out of Europe will be the ECB rate decision tomorrow. Trichet is bidding adieu at the end of October and this is his last opportunity to reverse the prior rate hike. Does he head to Hotel du Cap admitting a mistake or stick to his guns and allow Mario...

Moody's Investors Service on Tuesday downgraded its ratings of Italian bonds to A2 with a negative outlook, down three levels from the previous rating of Aa2. Moody's Investors Service went on to say that all but the highest rated eurozone countries were also under pressure and could face future...

The euro dropped to an 8-month low against the American dollar, as concerns over Greece's ability to pay its debts continued to put pressure on the eurozone currency. European stock markets were also down during Monday trading as investors worried about the effect that a Greek default would have on...

By Rebecca Wilder This ‘Competitiveness' Thing Is a Scam What is ‘competitiveness'? It's an important part of the euro area leaders' negotiated terms in the July 21st Summit announcement by the European Heads of State. The first paragraph, #4, and #11 of the announcement all refer to this issue of...

The stock market opened sharply higher today. This move took the Dow Jones Industrial Average up by more than 200 points. In the last two days, similar up moves have taken place but sharp selling has come in late in the day and driven the markets back down. Today, the markets are seeing sharp...

The government of German Chancellor Angela Merkel won a victory on Thursday when the German parliament passed a vote expanding the powers of the institution charged with saving troubled eurozone members like Greece, Ireland and Italy from default. The German Parliament overwhelmingly approved a...

I think the talking heads on TV are generally not really picking up what the markets are laying down.  Even Jim Cramer has his wires crossed a bit on this one; and I usually find his macro analysis pretty cogent.  To be fair, there's a lot going on with a rolling European debt/banking crisis,...

I'm still somewhat perplexed by how the euro fell nearly a cent and risk appetite evaporated after this story in the FT. There's almost nothing new there. Part of the story were reported here on Friday - Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos was quoted by two newspapers as saying an orderly...

I woke up this morning around 4 AM EST, and was surprised to see futures doing nothing in the U.S. as a plan seems to be forming in Europe to copy the United States of Bailout plan for 2008.  A few hours later they are ripping higher.  While there is still a long road to get 17 countries to agree...

The Capitol of Greece was brought to a standstill on Thursday as thousands of public transport workers went on strike in protest of the latest round of austerity measures that are aimed at convincing Greece's international creditors that the country is serious about reducing its fiscal deficits....

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) gave a grim outlook for the global economy in its most recent World Economic Outlook report. According to the IMF, “financial volatility has again increased drastically, driven by concerns about developments in the euro area and the strength of global activity...

It was reported on Tuesday morning that the state-run Bank of China has halted FOREX swaps with several top European banks. The banks included Societe Generale and Credit Agricole, which were downgraded by Moody's Investors Service last week, and BNP Paribas, which Moody's said it will need more...