Market Update
Equities in Europe climbed lower early Tuesday, as worries over the debt situation of several countries came to the fore yet again, with financial stocks taking a knock.
At the time of writing, Britain's FTSE, France's CAC and Germany's DAX fell 1.5% to 2.2%.
Sentiment took a hit as the sovereign debt crisis, which appeared to be recently limited to Greece, showed signs of spreading a contagion with bond yields in Italy and Spain reaching record levels. The euro fell sharply against peers.
A crisis in Italy's bond market, the third-largest in the world, could lead to a global financial risk, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch wrote to clients in a note.
Financials dropped across the region: Barclays, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole and Deutsche Bank fell 3% to 5.1%. Miners BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Xstrata and Anglo American were off 2.6% to 3.6%.
Shares in Thomas Cook plummeted about 30% following a profit warning.