Economy, Europe Debt | featured news

If the U.S. economic slowdown weren't enough to deal with, the Federal Reserve this week must consider a new threat: a resurgent European debt crisis that could imperil the global economy.

Eurozone finance ministers meet in Luxembourg, where they are expected to approve a 12bn-euro (£10bn) loan to debt-stricken Greece.

President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed that Europe's debt crisis must be contained.

Portugal will elect a new government on Sunday which will lead the country through a period of deep austerity and recession after it received a 78-billion-euro ($114 billion) bailout from the European Union and IMF.

World markets are also up as investors look past worries about the American economy and Europe’s debt crisis.

Fueling the demonstrators’ anger is the perceived failure by politicians to alleviate the hardships imposed on a struggling population by a jobless rate of 21 percent.

Speculation is growing that Greece may need a second financial bail-out from the international community

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's downgraded two of the euro zone's most troubled member states, citing fears that the pair may have to restructure their debt after 2013.

If we did not find ourselves smack in the middle of the Holiday season, I’d probably be talking about how the bull camp’s momentum appears to be waning and that we should be bracing for a meaningful pullback in response to the tiring trend, the overbought condition, and the overly optimistic sentiment readings. And while these issues are indeed present, it appears that the holiday spirit and the corresponding portfolio allocations may be the primary driver to what I will loosely term the current trend.

The Belgian finance minister and International Monetary Fund suggested that the scope of measures to stabilize the euro should be strengthened.