Spain's and Italy's cost of borrowing surged Monday as investors sold off the nations' sovereign debt amid pessimism that a euro zone finance ministers' meeting will be a dud.
The yield on Italy's 10-year bonds climbed to 6.1 percent and the yield on Spain's 10-year bonds jumped to more than 7 percent, a psychologically important limit widely seen as unsustainable.
The finance ministers were meeting to work out details of a general plan agreed to at a summit last month on how to respond to the nearly three-year-old euro zone sovereign debt and banking crisis.
