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In Europe on Friday morning, stocks opened up breaking the trend for the week as markets try to enter the weekend on a positive note. This week has seen more uncertainty in Europe, extended by renewed pressure on Spanish and Italian bonds which reflect the euro zone’s fear that the debt crises is spinning out of control.
Spain's borrowing costs at a sale of 10-year debt soared to their highest in the euro's history yesterday. The new 10-year Spanish bond was yielding 6.85 %, with traders expecting more upward pressure before the country's elections on Sunday. Most of the Spanish stocks followed the IBEX up in this morning’s trading.
The Italian banks broke the downward trend of the week this morning, opening up over 2% led by Unicredito and Generali Assicurazioni. Unicredit has had an abysmal week after it posted stunning losses, over 10.6 billion in Q3. New Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti on Thursday pledged his country would embark on radical fiscal reforms to pull itself out of the debt crisis. This led Yields on 10-year Italian government bonds above 7%.
French stocks opened flat this morning as the market awaits results on a French government bond auction.