By FX Empire.com
Jitters continued to dominate global financial markets on Monday, as despite the announcement that Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi will step down and former EU Commissioner will take his post as the new Prime Minister of Italy, yet traders were still doubtful that Italy could avert a similar fate as Greece, where Italy offered 3 billion euros of 5-year bonds, yet the yield on bonds hit a euro zone era record high, which reflects rising concerns among investors that Italy could follow the footsteps of Greece and other EU countries to ask for bailout.
Data from the euro zone also spread jitters in markets, where industrial production contracted in September by 2%, which confirmed the ongoing weakness in overall economic activities within the euro zone region, noting that analysts expect the euro zone economy to fall in recession in the fourth quarter of this year.
The U.S. dollar gained against a basket of major currencies on Monday, where the U.S. dollar index was trading at 77.46, compared with the opening level at 76.86. The Euro fell against the Dollar, where the EUR/USD pair traded at $1.3634, compared with the opening level at $1.3784, the British Pound also fell against the Dollar, where the GBP/USD pair traded around $1.5894, compared with the opening level at $1.6075, and the U.S. dollar fell against the Japanese Yen, where the USD/JPY pair was trading around 77.00, compared with the opening level at 77.17.
Stocks in the United States fell by opening on Monday, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down by nearly 0.40% to trade around 12,104, while the S&P 500 index was lower by nearly 0.70% to trade around 1254. European stock indexes were also lower before closing on Monday, where FTSE 100 was down by nearly 0.70% to trade at 5507 and the DAX was down by nearly 1.40% to close around 5972.
Gold prices fell on Monday to trade now around $1778 an ounce and crude oil prices also dropped to trade around $97 a barrel.
Originally posted here
