Bernard Hickey details the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am in association with Bank of New Zealand, including news that Fitch Ratings has warned it may cut France's AAA credit rating within two years and it has formally put six Eurozone economies on review for a downgrade within 3 months.
Fitch's warning came as it said a comprehensive solution to the European crisis was "technically and politically beyond the reach of the Eurozone countries" and the region lacked a credit financial backstop, given the European Central Bank was refusing to act as a lender of last resort to the region's governments.
European Finance Ministers are scheduled to hold a teleconference later tonight to try to rebuild some market confidence in the measures agreed at a leaders summit over a week ago.
However, they may struggle, given the latest news out of Ireland, where the deputy finance minister has warned that Ireland would need further debt reduction if it was to pass a referendum agreeing the latest Fiscal Compact changes. See more here at Reuters.
European stocks fell 0.5% on Friday night while US stocks were broadly flat. The Italian 10 year bond rose to 7.03%, over the 7% threshold seen as unsustainable.
Meanwhile, the US government narrowly averted a shutdown of spending over the weekend when Congress voted in favour of a US$1 trillion spending bill that will keep the government going until September next year. It required a compromise and a two month extension of a payroll tax cut.
The New Zealand dollar was solid around 76 USc in morning trade.
It remains vulnerable to further falls in line with dramas in the Eurozone crisis. See more here in Dan Bell's weekly currency report.
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