just 13 stocks on the dow jones stoxx 600 are in positive territory right now. phillips is the top of the bunch after better than expected numbers. after gains last week of around 2% for the ftse, down 1.4%, xetra dax down 2%. ibex down 3%. we keep our eyes on what's going on with the bond markets. that's been telling us fears about debt. you have the ten year bund yields down near record lows. we're seeing the spread between ten year bunds and dutch out to three year highs as the dutch government failed to agree on austerity cuts. they now potentially have the option of calling snap elections. we'll know more today and the spread between italian dealt and ten year bunds out at three month highs. french debt fairly steady this morning, no major auctions from france in this week after the first round of presidential elections. as far as currency markets are concerned, we've seen aussie dollar a little bit weaker post data out of australia, rba will cut rates this mond and also the chinese pmis. dollar-yen steady. euro-dollar weak are but in the ranges. >> not muc

stoxx 50. dow not that far mbehind, over 13,000. euro trading to $1.3234. >> a vote of no-confidence was spearheaded by the opposition parties to have seized on public anger over budget cuts. the center-right government had come under increasing concern. a number of lawmakers switched sides to vote with the opposition. they have not nominated a leftist leader of the new prime minister charged with assembling a new government. the age of european austerity seems to be deadly for the very governments who had assured it in. just this week, both from me and the netherlands all the apartments fall. the polls suggest the french will be voting for a change roswell. >> trying to contain the eurozone that contagion. >> like economic dominos, they are collapsing under the weight of the debt crisis. buried under a mountain of debt, increase was the first to implement austerity measures. others were soon to follow. confronted with falling wages and pont -- pension cuts, people across europe to to the streets in protest. eight european governmen

the euro stoxx 50 closed up almost 1%, 2341. the dow jones is currently going up almost 1%, 12,817.he euro is trading for $1.31. >> of vladimir putin has made his final speech to parliament as russian prime minister. he is due to be inaugurated as president next month. >> your appeal for unity among political parties. he referred to the recent elections in the wave of protests, saying russia had emerged from a time of heightened emotions and political battles. >> ahead of his speech, police arrested several demonstrators outside parliament. >> they barely started their protests when police moved in. these demonstrators say putin was elected in a fraudulent election. in his speech, putin called for an end to political squabbling and urged russians to work together. he also cited his achievements as prime minister. >> we can say with confidence that we have made great progress over the last few years. we are now stronger than before. >> putin also promised to fight corruption and bureaucracy and said he would strive to make russia a more attractive to foreign investors. he said the co

euro stoxx 50 coming in and bid up as well. 2,501. in new york, the dow up nicely, 13,292. european trading down $1.3332. we're going back to the switzerland story. switzerland wants to prosecute german officials. we asked our chief political correspondent mohler at -- melinda crane just how bad this dispute is. >> the german government was downplaying it today, saying it is simply a case of neighbors having a difference of opinion about some tax data. the fact is, the dispute has been going on for years and we have seen the big guns rolled out before, at least rhetorically. we have heard german officials comparing switzerland as a tax haven to waga dugu and being compared by the swiss to not cease in turn. the big question now is, will the two countries ratify the deal you mentioned? it would require switzerland to impose punitive taxes on german tax evaders. many of the german states, and they're not and would sentence phillippe once governed by the opposition spd, they say the deal is too weak. now the german government is saying, hey, misunderstandings' like this one, t

the dax lost well over 2% on friday, closing at about 65,000 points but the -- the euro stoxx 50 closedn 2.5%. the dow jones is down by about 0.5%. the euro is trading down, $1 37 tons -- $1.3078. the german auto giant volkswagen says it sold more than two million cars in the first quarter of the year for the first time in its history. >> volkswagen says demand was especially strong in north america, russia, and china. sales have surged 50% of the same time last year. management added that uncertainty continues on the western european market. volkswagen was to become the world's biggest carmaker by 2018. and motorsports governing body has confirmed the bahrain formula one grand prix will go ahead as planned. >> last year the event was canceled in the face of protests against the country's rulers in which 50 people were killed. >> human rights groups say the crackdown on dissent is continuing and accused formula one of helping to cover it up. >> images like these that have put pressure on motor sports officials to rethink the race in bahrain. daily clashes between anti- government protes

the euro stoxx 50 closing up even further, 2367.new york, the dow jones is currently following suit, up 1.5%. over 13,000 points. the european trading in positive territory, $1.3142. back to that story we mentioned. the bank of spain has confirmed that the country fell back into recession in the first quarter of 2012. as we just heard, in another effort to save the country, the spanish government has sold off a massive chunk of short-term debt. >> however, interest rates were sharply higher to attract buyers, reflecting continuing investor concern over the country's finances. there is fear that spain's economic problems will reignite the eurozone debt crisis, and to make matters worse, the spanish king has not shown dedication to his country's fate. >> as spaniards over the country's worst economy in a generation, there king frolicked in botswana on an elephant hunt. the news broke after he returned to spain for his surgery. >> it is totally irresponsible, but he has always done whatever he wanted. >> this demonstrates the insensiti

euro stoxx 50 leading the way on the decline, 2398. euro right now -- dow jones first, down almost 1%1%3,082. the euro down, $1.3138. >> the five multinational oil giant said have petrol stations here constitute an oligopoly. >> the competition authority has opened an investigation into whether the main refiners have been hampering the independent filling stations. >> each year, it is the same game. in early spring, fuel prices go through the roof. bed at 1.70 euros, their higher than ever before. drivers are angry. politicians are once again arguing over the causes and possible solutions. across the continent how the situation is similar. in some european countries, drivers are shelling out even more. currently, drivers in italy are paying as much as 1.90 a leader. in britain, up to 1.80 euros. the highest gas prices in europe are in all real-rich norway. the prices topped 2 euros due to high tech unfriendly taxes. so even that -- heidi eco- friendly taxes. the oil giant said faced harsh criticism for the rise in prices, but they deny

euro stoxx 50 leading the way on the decline, 2398. euro right now -- dow jones first, down almost 1%1%3,082. the euro down, $1.3138. >> the five multinational oil giant said have petrol stations here constitute an oligopoly. >> the competition authority has opened an investigation into whether the main refiners have been hampering the independent filling stations. >> each year, it is the same game. in early spring, fuel prices go through the roof. bed at 1.70 euros, their higher than ever before. drivers are angry. politicians are once again arguing over the causes and possible solutions. across the continent how the situation is similar. in some european countries, drivers are shelling out even more. currently, drivers in italy are paying as much as 1.90 a leader. in britain, up to 1.80 euros. the highest gas prices in europe are in all real-rich norway. the prices topped 2 euros due to high tech unfriendly taxes. so even that -- heidi eco- friendly taxes. the oil giant said faced harsh criticism for the rise in prices, but they deny

now 5:4 on the dow jones stoxx 600. ftse up 1.8%. pretty flat despite performance by construction. cac 40 down six. ibex down 0.75%. euro-dollar, we headed down to a one week low yesterday. we're before that at 1.3352. dollar-yen steady. aussie dollar has weakened a little bit. there's expectations the rba in australia will cut rates next month after not cutting today. and sterling holding on to those 4 1/2 month highs against the dollar. just a reminder where brent is current rly trading. oil prices brent just below $1925 mark and nymex $104.60. christine. >> mixed picture here in asia. nikkei 225 down 0.6%. stronger yen weighing on the the exporters in the japanese market. kospi up 1%. automakers pushing the market higher. rba signaled it would keep rates on hold preferring to wait for the next inflation data. australian market up 0.2%. the sensex hot money in-flows up, still trading mind you the market still moving. en a the hang seng up to the up side. we had the real estate developers getting hammered recently. realis say the de

we do have some stand out decliners, but overall markets are higher 0.6% up for the stoxx 600. and breaking that down to the individual in-sanzs, the ftse is moving higher by half a percent. second day of gains for many of these major european markets. but burberry is one of the stand out decliners. sock down by over 4%. particularly under pinned by growth in the emerging markets, also a pretty strong time in the north american business and the retail has outweighed the relative slowness in wholesale. the numbers are pretty much in line today, but some of the analysts coming out and saying this represent ares something of a slow down, particular goldman sachs, which is also very influential. they believe that fourth quarter numbers missed this retail and in wholesale. certainly the stock is dropping today. one of the biggest decliners not just on the ftse, one of the biggest decliners on the stoxx 600, as well. of course in germany, the dax is moving higher by 0.6%. and in spain, renewed attention on the equity markets today and we have a big movement in repsol. ibex up by 0.7%

we're weighted to the up side in terms of stock numbers in the stoxx 600. 6:4. we had gains yesterday, ftse up around 30 points, same for the dax. right now the ftse just tip towed in to positive territory, up 7 points. the cac down 4 points. ib even x down about a percent at the moment, but a lot better than we were earlier. in terms of how that's impacted the bond market, we saw yields just head over 6% earlier on. keeping an eye on italy, as well. bond auctions today. the focus will really be on the 5 and ten-year auctions that we've got this morning. 5.2% was the yield in march. you can see where we're raiding at the moment. five years in march, we were looking at a yield of around 4.2%. currently around 4.8. we also have other issues. 7 year btp and 4 year, as well, coming out. it's 2019 issue i think we've got coming out. as far as current city markets are concerned, the dollar index up against most things this morning. we just did see the yen weaken after bank the japan came out with bigger sort of beyond expectations with their bond buying. extending to

. >> 3:2 right now on the stoxx 600. just bounced off the session low. xetra dax up 11, ibex not doing too bad. risk appetite not impacted by all the news over the weekend. spanish bond yields interestingly enough haven't moved a whole lot. they are still below the 6% level. yields got to slightly lower this morning. italians also down. the dollar sk impacted by the whiff of qe. in fact sterling got over 1.63. even the yen is firmer, two month lows against the dollar. euro-dollar still firmly in the ranges. christine. >> south korea's government is hoping the third time is a charm as it attends yet again to privatize worry finance. and this time foreign bids are allowed. more from seoul. >> the south korean government seems always more confident that it will be able to off load at least part of its 57% stake or $5.3 billion worth of shares. the government is waving the immediate forbidders to submit a letter of intent and instead it has set july 27th for a deadline for interesting parties to submit their initial offers. final bids will have to be submitt

the stoxx 600, certainly we have more gainers than losers. up by 0.2%. looking across the region, the ftse 100 is a bit of a laggard, up by 0.2%. in germany, we're looking at gains of nearly 0.7%. in paris, the cac is also trading higher by roughly a third of one 1%. and in spain, we managed to edge up to those levels today. but what's going on in the currency markets? as far as the euro is concerned, we've been trading in will this narrow brand for practically as long as i can remember. just over 130. we're moving up by 0.2%. we did see a spike come through, but within the narrow trading band. so 1.3164. dollar-yen flicking between unchanged red and green. fairly steady around the levels at 81.59. aussie dollar pretty steady 1.0338. and sterling still above this . 1.60 level. moving up against at 0.1%. so 1.6073 roughly is where we stand against the dollar. so on to the bond markets. this is where some attention is focused this week particularly around the very low yields on the ten year debt and the increasingly high yields on the spanish ten year debt

. >> 9:1 decliners outpacing advancers for the stoxx 600. 2.5% for the german market, 3% for the cac.nued those losses beginning of this week. ftse 100 down around 0.75%. ibex in spain down 0.9%. this market is back to levels that we last saw in 2009, below 7600, but we'll keep our focus really. the best gauge of really where investors feel at the moment, keep your eye on the spreads between bunds and spanish ten year yields. german ten year bund yields below 1.7%, 1.699%. we hit a record low in september last year, 1.634%. this is the record low here. we're nearly back down on it. that means the spread between these two is well over 400 basis points, around 415 basis points as the yields in spain edge up ever close to 6%, 5.87%. quite a long way off those lows, we hit 4.5% around about beginning of february. you can seat big dropoff. we already had a guest on this morning saying he expects around a 450 basis point spread with yields in spain going up to about 635. so as we watch that, and you are row dollar, we'll see if we can having failed 134 on the up side, will it break through

stoxx 600 up 0.7% of one%. ftse 100 down over 100 points, 1.8%. xetra dax fell over 3%. currently up around 2/3. contact 0 up 0.8% after falling 90 points yesterday. we'll be looking at a spanish auction a little bit later. let's just remind you where we is an as far as the key auctions that we're focused on. in italy, that's the last one coming out today. we've got a inflation linked btp sales. the real test will be on friday, but yields you can see 5.73%. just coming down a bit from elevated levels. in spain yesterday, apologies for the fact this isn't working, but we did see yields back over 6%. they've got 2 billion in t-bills. average yields expected to almost double in both the lee and the six month t-bill from the auctions that we got in march. so about 0.75% on the three month and six month trading around 1.6%. you can see the yields just below that 6%. we managed to recover that board for you. we know moodys came out yesterday and said there is a credit negative effect the fact government had to resign because it couldn't agree on austerity measure, but they hav

so more than 8:2 decliners outpacing advancers on the stoxx 600. we're down neert session lows. up about a percent in thursday's session here on friday giving up those percentage gains. ftse is relative outperformer down half a percent. ibex down over 2%. once again we've hit flesh record three year lows this morning, banks being sold off. we saw they borrowed a record amount from the ecb if march, over 300 billion euros. pressuring once again yields in spanish debt going back up to around 5.3%, spreads between that and german bunds just widening out again. and five year credit default swaps hitting a record high of the spread 595 basis points. basically record costs for ensuring spanish debt against default again this morning. so that's where the focus is. in italy, we've got protests this rome against pension reforms, but the story to keep your eye on is monti trying to progress his employment reforms. there's been an about-face from one of the leaders of the italian industry unit who now supports monti's employment reforms. trying to free up the labor rules. italian yields ar

pretty much evens stevens on the stoxx 600. claude back from heavy losses yesterday. up around three quarters of a percent. today down 0.1. half percent lower for the cac 40. real weakness once again is in the peripheral markets. ibex down nearly 2%, dragged down by the bankingbanesto firs. brought forward losses or birggr provisions for the real estate sector. yields still contained pretty much where we were. 5.46%. yields in spain, they dropped yesterday when one of the ecb governing counsel members said we can't relaunch the bond buying program. slightly higher today, but away from the 6% mark. so they were looking to raise 5 billion. we raised about 4.88. not bad. key was on the three year issue. you can see the yields 3.93, yields in the auction came in a little lower. also the bid to cover a little bit low. we had a bid to cover last time in mid may of 1.56. they raise the the money they wanted, but as we thought, yields were certainly higher and the bid to cover a little bit lower. so fine against expectations, but not the best result potentially. so it hasn't

you can see dow jones stoxx 6 oorks just 20 stocks at the moment in positive territory. phillips really opening the earnings season here in europe. they came out with first quarter numbers that beat forecasts. that's pretty much it in terms of bright stocks for europe. so off 1.7%. ftse last week was up around 2% for the week. dax up 2.5%. the dax you can see has given all those gains back. down nearly 100 points for the ftse. ibex has been down 3%. just below that at the moment -- or just above it at 2.8%. a number of stories driving us down, eurozone pmis that came out for april. much weak than we might have expected. of particular concern was weaker french numbers and also german manufacturing. german manufacturing activity as measured by market composite pmi coming in at the weakest since 2009. new orders down at # 4.9, the tenth month of contraction. bunds still as a result near those record lows at 1.672%. we've also got politics coming into play today. dutch government pretty much unable to agree to austerity measures. and it looks like the dutch prime minister ma

ftse 100, we're weighted will terms of decliners versus advances stoxx 600 by somewhere around about 3:2. cac 40 down 0.7%. ftse mib down 0.3%. it's been like friday. we got the confirmed recession in spain. the first quarter gdp growth contracting. forecast around 0.4%. so slightly better. s&p down grading 16 spanish banks before they're all weaker. but it's been like friday of course with the s&p down grade of the country with a negative outlook in two notches, not massive response for the rest of european investors to the spanish growth story. by and large nearly every investor should know what is going on in spain. we also heard morning that between them, spanish italian and french banks bought around 51 billion euros worth of government debt this march and in spain, 20 billion, italy, 23 billion. and those were record amounts. so some of that ltro may have been recycled back into government debt. yields nevertheless here today slightly lower. spani spanish ten year. so no big impact. last week of campaigning with hollande and sarkozy for the french presidential election. holland

this is the dow jones euro stoxx 50, the top 50 blue chip within the eurozone. the month they've lost almost 7%, whereas here in the united states, the equity markets are broadly flat. now, the implication of that, if you have a look at a year chart, is that europe has, therefore, erased its gains for the year and is, therefore, net-net flat, as you can see, whereas the united states has, in fact, had gains. currently, we're up about 8% on the dow, and obviously, other markets have done better. so, that's the disconnect. we could debate the degree to which it will continue moving forward, but that's the basis on which we now close out the month. did you see the protesters in spain over the weekend? carl mentioned they've gone back into recession. actually, the figures, the economic figures we got out today, certainly not as bad as we had thought, but the situation is absolutely dire. they have now said they will attempt to auction 2.5 billion euros of sovereign debt on thursday. clearly, there will be a lot of interest in that. what is interesting is we've also