Euro hits fresh lows on debt fears

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Source: Reuters (Richard Hubbard)

Nervousness about euro zone sovereign debt sent the single currency to a 15-month low and hit European stocks on Thursday, with the first French bond auction of 2012 seen as a test of recent efforts by policymakers to ease the region's crisis.

The price France has to pay to sell 7 to 8 billion euros of longer-term bonds will measure how much relief markets have taken from the EU leaders' December plan for resolving the crisis, and the near half-trillion euros subsequently pumped into the region's banks by the European Central Bank.

Markets have been bracing for France to lose its current AAA rating after ratings agency Standard & Poor's warned in early December of a mass downgrade due to concerns about the bloc's two-year old debt crisis. <snip>

France is seen at a greater risk of contagion from the euro zone debt crisis than Germany, but the real test comes next week with Spain and Italy, the two big economies seen as most at risk from the crisis that has already dragged down Greece, Ireland and Portugal, due to issue bonds.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/05/us-markets-global-idUSTRE7BB02E20120105