US stocks subdued as eurozone ministers meet

Wall Street is subdued this afternoon as finance ministers launch the ESM.


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By :  ,  Financial Analyst

US stocks are subdued on Wall Street this afternoon (October 8th), as the finance ministers of each of the eurozone's 17 member states meet in Brussels to launch the new bailout fund for the single currency region.

The policymakers are set to deposit their countries' contributions towards the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), which will have a lending capacity of €500 billion (£400 billion) when it is completed.

It is hoped the facility will be able to lend up to €200 billion by the end of this month.

Germany – which is the largest economy in Europe – is putting in 27 per cent of the funding itself and it is hoped the ESM will support the eurozone and prevent its collapse.

"[It] marks an historic milestone in shaping the future of monetary union," said prime minister of Luxembourg and Eurogroup chair Jean-Claude Juncker.

At 16:40 BST, the Dow Jones was down 0.2 per cent to an index value of 13576.1 points and its neighbour the Nasdaq lost 0.8 per cent to 3111.1 points.

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