World stocks turn tail as Italy angst grips Europe
European stocks fall on anti-euro rhetoric, which send Italian bond yields to multi-year highs
London — Stocks fell worldwide and European assets sold off on Tuesday after anti-euro comments from an Italian lawmaker dented the single currency and sent Italy’s bond yields to multi-year highs, despite attempts by the government to backtrack. A boost to investors’ risk appetite from the new US-Mexico-Canada trade pact proved short-lived with the MSCI world equity index falling back 0.3%. US futures traded down 0.3% to 0.4% ahead of Wall Street's open, while PepsiCo gained in pre-market trading after reporting stronger-than-expected profit. The leading index of eurozone stocks lost 0.7% and the pan-European STOXX 600 fell 0.5% as Italian assets came under renewed pressure, though the sell-off lost steam by midday. The economics spokesman for Italy’s ruling League party, Claudio Borghi, said in a radio interview that most of the country’s problems could be solved by having its own currency. His comments drove Italian 10-year bond yields to a new four-and-a-half-year high, pushing ...
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