Brokers monitor market movements at the BGC Partners firm in London, on August 5, 2011.BEN STANSALL
The borrowing costs of both Spain and Italy have plunged in early trading in the wake of the European Central Bank's signal that it would intervene in the markets to keep the two countries' bond prices supported.
In early trading Monday, the yield on Italy's ten-year bond was down 0.58 percentage points to 5.58 while the equivalent rate on Spain's tumbled 0.68 percentage point to 5.58 per cent.
The increase in their borrowing costs to over 6 per cent contributed to last week's turmoil in global markets. Anything substantially higher raised the prospect of the Eurozone's third and fourth largest economies being unable to tap bond market investors.
That prompted the European Central Bank to insist late Sunday it would "actively implement" its bond-buying program.