European financial markets opened cautiously Thursday ahead of an emergency summit in Brussels called to draw up new plans to contain the debt crisis that has engulfed parts of the eurozone, according to dpa. While the euro nudged up 0.2 per cent to 1.4260 dollars in early trading, the pressure on borrowings costs eased for nations at the centre of the crisis. The yields on Italian, Greek and Spanish government bonds slipped as the trading got under way. This followed signs that European leaders might be able to hammer out a deal on a second bailout for Greece and consequently halt the debt crisis from spreading to Spain and Italy, two of the 17-member eurozone's biggest economies. But underlying the brittle mood among investors, European shares fell back in earlier trading with the benchmark Eurostoxx 600 down 0.5 per cent at 266.37 points. Already key economic sentiment surveys have raised concerns that the debt crisis could spill over into Europe's real economy and undercut growth in the region.
