With much at stake for the U.S., President Barack Obama said Thursday that the most important task for world leaders gathered at an economic summit in France was to resolve the European financial crisis. The EU had taken important steps toward a solution, the president said, but "we're going to have to flesh out more of the details about how the plan will be fully and decisively implemented."
U.S. stock futures are jumping after European leaders agreed on a deal to slash Greece's debt. Banks agreed to take 50 percent losses on the Greek bonds that they hold, and European leaders agreed to strengthen a rescue fund to protect Italy and other large European economies. Worries that a European country could default had dragged down global stocks.
September is finally over, and we're heading into a few fast weeks of economic data and earnings releases. With stock market and macroeconomic factors taking new twists nearly every day, it's hard to keep up. So let's focus on the data and news that will matter most to your bottom line.
The Spanish government's successful bond auction Thursday reassured investors, pushing the euro to a one-week high against the dollar. Portugal and Italy also tested the bond market this week with their own auctions. But how much appetite for bonds do investors really have?
Just a day after a successful bond auction in Portugal, Spain hopes to raise up to $3.9 billion in its first debt auction of the year. The auction will be a key test of investor appetite for European bonds.
With the fears of a European sovereign debt crisis growing worse, the Spanish government said Wednesday that it's taking several measures to stop the fiscal contagion from reaching its shores, including selling a 30% stake in its national lottery business, Bloomberg reported.
The dollar-stocks see-saw -- in which the two move in opposite directions -- seems to be holding up. And over the longer term, there's good reason for the dollar to stay on its recent upward trend, which would be bad news for stock prices.
Moody's Investors Service cut Spain's top credit rating by one level to Aa1 from Aaa with a stable outlook. The agency cited a "weak" economic outlook and doubts that the nation will reach deficit-reduction targets.
Gold prices slipped Wednesday after closing at a record high in the previous session. Prices have risen sharply over the past three weeks as the euro has come under pressure.
The European Union is considering measures that would give regulators emergency powers to "prohibit or restrict" naked credit-default swaps -- insurance on bonds not owned by the CDS purchaser -- in reaction to the region's current debt crisis.