With fears increasing that Greece may be forced to leave the euro, commodity markets have fallen as a result.
Greece is still to form a Government following elections almost two weeks ago, and there is increasing speculation that it may need to leave the euro to enable it to recover.
There are worries that this will lead to an escalation of the euro crisis that could engulf other nations such as Spain, Italy and Ireland.
On a slightly brighter note, the eurozone has managed to avoid recession with growth flat in the last quarter following a 0.3 per cent decline in the last quarter. Germany was the star performer with 0.5 per growth thanks to strong net trade.
Commodities overall declined for a tenth straight day – the longest loosing streak since 1998 – with the S&P GSCI index falling 0.5 per cent to 632.7. As a result, it has fallen 7.5 per cent this month following declines in March and April.
WTI crude oil was down 0.9 per cent to $93.91 a barrel on the New York mercantile exchange, while Brent Crude picked up 30 cents to $111.87 a barrel after falling to $110.04 on Monday – its lowest since 25 January.
At 9am this morning, three-month copper was trading at $7,827 a tonne, 0.2 per cent lower than its Monday close, when the metal hit a session low of $7,763.
Aluminium fell 0.11 per cent to $2,022, while lead was down 0.16 per cent to $2,032.
