Euro nears 8-mth low on doubts over EU crisis steps

The euro dropped sharply on Monday, moving toward an eight-month low hit last week, as riskier assets were hammered across the board with markets waiting for more details on fresh efforts from European officials to tackle the debt crisis there.

The euro started cautiously higher, bobbing up to $1.3585 amid reports that the E.U. leaders were considering beefing up the European Financial Stability Fund and new measures to ring-fence debt-ridden Greece, Portugal and Ireland.

Euro crisis: three perspectives

WASHINGTON D.C. (CNNMoney) -- George Soros, the billionaire hedge fund manager and philanthropist, warned Saturday that failing to resolve the sovereign debt crisis in Europe could lead to a "real meltdown" of the global financial system.

His remarks came while on a panel with Olli Rehn, the top economic and monetary official at the European Commission, and Gao Xiqing, the head of China's sovereign wealth fund, who also commented on the debt crisis in Europe.

Euro, Asian Stocks Fall on Debt Concern

The euro weakened against most of its major peers, Asian stocks dropped to a 15-month low, while U.S. futures and oil pared gains amid concern European policy makers will struggle to contain the region’s crisis.

Europe’s shared currency dropped 0.7 percent to 102.64 yen at 11:28 a.m. in Tokyo and slid 0.5 percent to $1.3433. The New Zealand dollar weakened for a sixth day and the won slumped 1.6 percent. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 0.8 percent and the Nikkei 225 Stock Average sank 1.6 percent after Japan’s markets resumed after a holiday. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures rose 0.6 percent, paring gains of as much as 1.3 percent. Oil was little changed in New York and gold dropped a fourth day.

Banks Splinter on Europe Crisis as Tension Pervades Meetings

Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Wall Street leaders, urging coordinated action from world governments to solve the European sovereign-debt crisis, struggled themselves during four days of meetings in Washington to agree on what’s needed to end it.

The chiefs of firms including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Deutsche Bank AG and Societe Generale SA met for three hours at the National Archives on Sept. 23. They differed on which government and private solutions may restore confidence in European debt and banks, and on some elements of regulation, said two participants who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting wasn’t public.