By STACY MEICHTRY and JONATHAN CHENG
ROME—Uncertainty in financial markets deepened as Italy’s borrowing costs soared to euro-era highs and Prime Minister Mario Monti said European leaders understood an Italian collapse would mean “the end of the euro.”
Europe’s troubles weighed on markets world-wide: Stocks in the U.S. had their worst Thanksgiving week since 1942, the year the U.S. officially set the holiday at its current date. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has shed 7.6% the past two weeks. The common currency showed its own signs of strain, ending the week down 2.1%, its lowest level in almost two months.
Monday will see a significant test of investor sentiment when Italy holds another debt auction. Belgium, Spain and France are also scheduled to sell new debt during the week. All told, five euro-zone governments are together expected to sell about €19 billion ($25.36 billion) in debt over the week, more than double the past week’s amount.
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Investors have dealt with an almost daily dose of bad news out of Europe, which is in the throes of a financial crisis that many fear could spark a global contagion with the potential to be more damaging than the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
The renewed rise in Italian bond yields is particularly worrisome. Italy has the world’s third-biggest bond market, and if it were to lose access to funding, the rest of the euro zone would struggle to keep the country solvent. Many economists believe Italy’s €1.9 trillion of debt is too big for even the euro-zone’s stronger economies to bail out.
A statement issued by Mr. Monti’s office Friday said French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel had declared Italy the decisive battleground in the euro-zone crisis.