Fitch Ratings warned on Thursday that it is likely to cut the credit ratings for Spain, Italy, Ireland, Cyprus, Belgium and Slovenia by one or two levels by the end of this month.
However, in the meantime, eurozone governments continued to sell debt at lower yields, France and Spain selling 14.6 billion euros of bonds on Thursday.
Meanwhile, US economic data on Thursday were mixed. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 50,000 to 352,000 last week, the lowest level since April 2008, and the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank's business activity index rose to 7.3 from 6.8 in December. However, housing starts fell 4.1 percent in December.
The consumer price index was unchanged in December for a second straight month, held down by gasoline prices, which fell for a third month in a row. Excluding food and energy, consumer prices rose 0.1 percent in December after rising 0.2 percent in November.
However, inflation in the US could prove more stubborn than some expect in coming years as deflationary pressure from China declines with its working-age population. China's National Bureau of Statistics has reported that the proportion of people aged between 15 and 64 dropped 0.10 percentage point to 74.4 percent last year while the proportion of people aged over 65 rose by 0.25 percentage point to 9.1 percent.
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