ROME, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Successful bond auctions in Spain and Italy at the end of the week did not invigorate markets on Friday, although an analyst said the "tone" improved.
"The tone was broadly better in the wake of the Spanish auction and a run-up in the euro," The New York Times quoted Charles Diebel, the head of market strategy at Lloyds Banking, as saying.
Spain on Thursday sold $12.6 billion of bonds with demand strong enough to push yields down as compared to previous auctions. In Italy, a $3.8 billion auction of three-year bonds on Friday lowered yields from 5.62 percent to 4.83 percent.
Stocks in Europe and the United States staggered, anyway, as credit rating agency Standard & Poor's Inc. downgraded ratings of several European countries, including Italy, which had its rating lowered two notches, and France, which saw its rating drop off S&P's top tier of AAA.
In Athens, negotiations concerning how much of a write-off private creditors would accept in the value of their Greek debt -- with the target, currently, of a 50 percent haircut -- stalled. That, along with the downgrades, "took the shine off things," Diebel said.
