European debt woes stalk markets

LONDON (AP) — Worries over Europe's debt crisis kept markets on edge Monday, following a warning over Italy's credit rating and a failure by eurozone finance ministers to agree an immediate release of bailout funds to Greece.

However, a brighter than anticipated opening on Wall Street helped stocks in Europe to recover from earlier lows and shored up the euro currency — an improvement in investors' risk appetite often gives the euro a lift.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 0.3 percent at 5,699 while Germany's DAX fell 0.3 percent to 7,145. The CAC-40 in France was 0.9 percent lower at 3,137.

All three had been trading even lower as had …