Euro weakens and Spanish yields soar as Europe crisis intensifies

The euro weakened this morning as the cost of insuring French bonds climbed to a record, Spanish yields rose and european equities retreated for a second day.

The euro depreciated 0.5% to $1.3564 at 10:25am in London while French, Belgian and Spanish 10-year yields climbed to euro-era records relative to benchmark German bunds, according to Bloomberg. At the latest auction, Spain sold 3.16bn euros ($4.3bn) of 12-month and 18-month bills, compared with a maximum target of 3.5bn euros, the Bank of Spain said. The yield on Spain's 10-year bond rose 17 basis points to 6.28% and the two-year yield climbed 23bps to 5.22%. The average yield on the country's 12-month debt was 5.022% at auction, compared with 3.608% when securities of the same matur...