* Stocks struggle; European stocks in choppy session
* Euro dips below $1.30 to hit 10-week low vs dollar <EUR=>
* Spanish, Italian yield spreads rise to new highs
By Tamawa Desai
LONDON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - The euro hit a 10-week low
against the dollar and world stocks struggled on Tuesday as euro
zone debt problems weighed on investor sentiment even after
Ireland's bailout.
U.S. stock futures <SPc1> pointed to a lacklustre open on
Wall Street, after it closed down on Monday but well off its
trough as the market braced for jobs data later this week that
would help gauge the strength of the world's biggest economy.
An 85-billion euro package for Ireland and plans for a
permanent system to resolve debt crises announced on Sunday did
little to stem fiscal concerns, as speculators targeted other
debt-laden countries.
The premium investors demand to hold Spanish and Italian
sovereign bonds over German bonds hit their highest since the
euro's launch while some of the region's "core" debt issuers,
including France, were pressured.
"It's very worrying because Spain is almost too big to be
bailed out ... whereas Italy is too big to be bailed out," said
Everett Brown, European bond strategist at IDEAglobal.
Italian 10-year yields <IT10YT=TWEB> rose to close to 5
percent, while Spanish 10-year bonds <ES10YT=TWEB> yielded 5.7
percent, pushing the spread over Bunds above 310 basis points.
NO CONFIDENCE
The euro fell to $1.2979 on trading platform EBS, its lowest
since mid-September, before bouncing back to around $1.3022 by
1142 GMT. The single currency also hit 2-1/2 month lows against
the yen, Swiss franc and sterling.
"At the moment there is no confidence that any of these
(peripheral) countries can effectively fund," said Adrian
Schmidt, currency strategist at Lloyds.
"Until we get some sort of market appetite for peripheral
debt these worries will continue to weigh on the euro," he said,
adding he believed it could fall as low as $1.25.
European shares drifted higher from the previous day's
eight-week closing lows, though euro zone debt issues kept
investors cautious. The FTSEurofirst 300 <> index of top
European shares was up 0.3 percent at 1,072.89 points.
"We will stay in a choppy mode for the next few weeks as the
debt problems in the euro zone stays on investors' minds. The
market will also be looking ahead to economic numbers such as
the U.S. jobs figures this week," said Heinz-Gerd Sonnenschein,
equity markets strategist at Deutsche Postbank in Bonn.
MSCI's all country world index <.MIWD00000PUS> was down 0.1
percent on the day.
U.S. Treasury prices rose, adding to the previous day's
gains, as investors turned to government debt as a safe haven
from the recent flare-up in volatility.
Spot gold <XAU=> was a touch higher at $1,373 an ounce,
while gold priced in euros <XAUEUR=R> hit a record high. U.S.
crude oil futures slipped to around $85 a barrel <CLc1>,
retracing sharp gains in the previous session.
(Additional reporting by Kirsten Donovan, Jessica Mortimer and
Harpreet Bhal; editing by Mike Peacock)
