Still, the main focus is on the latest developments from the euro area ahead of the awaited European Council summit on October 23 as investors weigh whether European leaders will be able to bridge the differences among them to come out with a decisive and comprehensive plan to resolve the two-year old debt crisis.
Merkel and Sarkozy will meet on Sunday as the Saturday's summit failed to show agreement between the two giant euro area countries regarding a comprehensive plan to resolve the debt crisis.
The offices of the two leaders announced that they need extra time to craft the main points of the plan, where they will meet on Saturday evening also to continue their negotiations.
Merkel's spokesman said "the Chancellor is confident that in this way, good, coordinated measures for the stability of the euro zone can be achieved."
However, the differences and indecision between the two leaders are causing turbulences in markets, where a German business confidence report added to worries.
German IFO business climate slipped to 106.4 in October from 107.4 in September.
The euro is currently trading around 1.3735 versus the dollar compared with the day's opening level of 1.3778.
Moreover, Standard and Poor's said "sovereign ratings on France, Spain, Italy, Ireland, and Portugal likely would be lowered by one or two notches" if the euro area fell into another downturn and government borrowing cost rose.
S&P revealed that "looking ahead, we believe growth in the coming 18 months will be very weak, averaging between 1.0 percent and 1.5 percent for the euro zone next year."
In the U.K., the data released today showed improvement as budget deficit excluding support for banks narrowed to 14.1 billion pounds in September from 15.4 billion pounds deficit a year before.
Government proceeds rose 4.2% while spending surged 0.5% only due to the sharp spending cuts adopted by British government to trim the huge budget shortfall.
However, the strong austerity measures are expected to shave more jobs and cut consumer spending.
Unemployment climbed to the highest level in 15 years in the three months ended August to reach 8.1% to raise the number of people without jobs to 2.57 million, while the number of employed people dropped 178,000.
The BoE decided on October 6 to hold borrowing cost at 0.50% while boosting the Asset Purchase Facility (APF) by 75 billion pounds to reach 275 billion pounds with a unanimous vote.
