Greater London, England -- (SBWIRE) -- 12/13/2010 -- Giles Watts of financial spread betting provider City Index (http://www.cityindex.co.uk) takes a look at market activity for 6th December:

“European equity markets drifted this morning as euro zone debt worries managed to outweigh positive sentiment born out of Bernanke’s weekend comment that the Fed could look to inject even more stimulus into the markets. Bernanke had been responding to the poor US nonfarm payroll figures on Friday afternoon, suggesting that more bond purchasing could be a possibility should unemployment stay too high.

Commodities rallied on this positive news and mining stocks followed suit, with Xstrata leading the sector on newspaper reports that Glencore, which owns nearly a third of the miners shares, is preparing an IPO that would fire it straight into the FTSE 100.

Banks soured the mood however, as Euro zone debt fears resurfaced and investors became unnerved by Moody’s downgrade of Hungary’s credit rating. Concerns re-emerged that the debt worries could spread beyond Spain and Portugal, with LSE's CEO Mr Rolet citing France as the next target state for worried bond investors.

Equity markets staged a remarkable recovery last week, erasing November’s losses in just two trading days. Much of this was predicated on the sound US data emerging in the early part of the week and hope that the euro problems could be contained.

Sentiment remains fragile however, and the weak non-farm numbers on Friday unnerved those hoping that the US strength could supersede the euro concerns. Should the euro fears re-emerge this week, last week’s aggressive rally could seem like a false dawn."

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