By FX Empire.com

The European debt crisis continued to dominate global financial markets, as investors fear that the euro zone debt crisis is worsening, where yields on European governmental bonds continued to rise on Tuesday, which reflects fears among traders over the outlook for the European debt crisis.

The fears from the euro zone debt crisis overshadowed better than expected growth in France and Germany in the third quarter of this year, in addition to better than expected data from the United States, where retail sales rose in October above median estimates, while the empire manufacturing index showed an unexpected expansion in November, which put some negative pressure on the U.S. dollar amid hopes the world’s largest economy continues its recovery at a moderate pace. Nonetheless, the fears fromEuropewere still dominant, as the USD was still higher against most major currencies, while equity markets were generally lower around the globe.

The U.S. dollar extended its gains against a basket of major currencies on Tuesday, where the U.S. dollar index was trading at 77.80, compared with the opening level at 77.63. The Euro extended its sharp losses against the Dollar, where the EUR/USD pair traded at $1.3527, compared with the opening level at $1.3624, the British Pound also fell against the Dollar, where the GBP/USD pair traded around $1.5822, compared with the opening level at $1.5898, and the U.S. dollar fell against the Japanese Yen, where the USD/JPY pair was trading around 76.95, compared with the opening level at 77.09.

Stocks in the United States fell by opening on Tuesday, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down by nearly 0.20% to trade around 12,055, while the S&P 500 index was lower by nearly 0.15% to trade around 1250. European stock indexes were mixed before closing on Tuesday, where FTSE 100 was higher by nearly 0.15% to trade at 5528 and the DAX was down by nearly 0.45% to close around 5958.

Gold prices settled on Tuesday to trade now around $1778 an ounce and crude oil prices gained to trade around $98 a barrel.

Originally posted here